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A SPECTATOR'S
HANDBOOK OF NOH
by
Mr. and Mrs. Murakami Upton
Tokyo
WANYA SHOTEN
^( JUN24 1968
^%/ry Of ^QS
..'^^
7 33
' -7
DEDICATED
TO
Noriyuki Takahash i
Our Noh Teacher
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We wish to express our heartfelt indebtedness to the book A GUIDE
TO NOH by P. G. O'Neill (IIINOKI SHOTEN, Tokyo & Kyoto,
1953), without which this book could never have been made as it is;
it gave us the inspiration and confidence to dare undertake such a
forbidding task.
The three volumes of JAPANESE NOH DRAMA (The Nippon
Gakujutsu Shinkcjkai, Tokyo, 1955, 1959, and 1960 respectively) were
invaluable for the thirty Noh which they include, with the only full
translations available in present-day English, detailed stage directions,
voluminous notes on the complex background references, and superb
introductory material. We recommend their perusal by anyone
seeking the fullest appreciation of Noh.
Arthur Waley's THE No PLAYS OF JAPAN provided a valuable
balance as a somewhat different point of departure and intention.
These are the books on Noh in English which have helped us
enrich our knowledge and understanding of Noh.
In Japanese, the definitive masterpiece of Noh research YOKYOKU
TAIKAN by Sanari Kentaro has been always at our side. We have
mined a wealth of useful information from NOHGAKU KANSHO
JITEN by Maruoka Akira.
The staff of Wanya Publishing Company have given full measure of
their energy, enthusiasm, and inexhaustible knowledge accumulated
through generations of Noh practice and scholarship.
All photographs are by Wanya, of HOSHO performances.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Noh As A Stage Performance
The Structure Of A Noh
Classification Of Noh By Theme
MASKS (Illustrations)
THE NOH STAGE (Illustration)
NOH
I. OKINA
II. A TRANSLATION: TOmOE
III. FULL SUMMARIES
AKOGI
AMA
AOI NO UE
ARASHIYAMA
ATAKA
ATSUMORI
AYA NO TSUZUMI
CHIKUBUSHIMA
DOJOJI
EBIRA
EGUCHI
FUJITO
FUNA BENKEI
HACHI NO Kl
HAGOROMO
HANAGATAMI
HASHITOMI
IZUTSU
KAGEKIYO
KANTAN
KAYOI KOMACHI
page
V
vi
vii
vii
viii
X
7
8
10
12
12
14
16
17
18
19
20
22
24
26
28
29
30
32
34
36
38
IV
KAZURAKI
KINUTA
KIYOTSUNE
KOKAJI
KOSODE SOGA
KURAMA TENGU
KUROZUKA
KUZU
MATSUKAZE
MIIDERA
MOMIJI GARI
OHARA GOKO
SAKURAGAWA
SHAKKYO
SHOJO
SHUNKAN
SOSHI ARAI
SUMIDAGAWA
TADANORI
TAKASAGO
TAMURA
TENKO
TOBOKU
TORU
TSUCHIGUMO
TSUNEMASA
YASHIMA
YOROBOSHI
YUYA
CONCISE SUMMARIES
ASHI KARI
FUJI DAIKO
GENJI KUYO
GENJO
HANJO
HIBARIYAMA
HYAKUMAN
KANAWA
KOGO
KOTEI
40
41
42
44
44
46
48
49
50
52
54
55
56
58
60
61
63
64
66
68
69
70
71
72
74
75
76
77
78
79
79.
79
79
80
80
80
80
81
81
KUMASAKA ""
MAKIGINU ^
MAKURA JIDO °X
MANJU
MATSUYAMA KAGAMl
MITSUYAMA
MIWA
OMINAMESHI
RAIDEN
RODAIKO
SAIGYO SAKURA
SENJU
SHICHIKIOCHI
SHOZON
TAMAKAZURA
TEIKA
TOGAN KOJI
TOSEN
UKAI
UKON
YAMAMBA
YORIMASA
83
84
84
84
MORIHISA ^
MOTOMEZUKA °^
NOMORI °Z
86
86
86
87
SANEMORI ^'^
SEMIMARU ?Z
87
88
88
88
89
89
89
TSURUKAME ^^
89
90
90
90
\-. SENTENCE SUMMARIES
Shrine Noh, Etc. 91
APPENDIX I. SOURCES 93
APPENDIX II. PERSONS 93
APPENDIX III. MAP 94
INDEX OF NOH 95
INTRODUCTION
Noh is the oldest living dramatic form in the world. Its
true origins are lost in antiquity, among the siii-itgakii and more
primitive shrine troupes, imported Chinese Court Dances, and
other classical dance forms derived from Central Asia ; but it
was cast in its present mold in the fourteenth century, during
the Muromachi (Ashikaga) Period, by Kanami and his son
Zeami, who wrote a large number of the greatest and most
popular Noh performed today. The songs and music, dances,
and details of staging have been handed down unchanged to the
present. In most cases even the standard variations permitted
for specific Noh have a history of at least several centuries.
Noh has been favorably compared with classic Greek drama
but the remarkable difference is not only that Noh has continued
as living theater as well as being preserved as literary master-
pieces, but also is thoroughly enjoyed by ordinary people of
the present day as an aesthetic pastime. It is impossible to
estimate how many thousands of people in Japan are practicing
the chanting of the Noh songs {iitai) and the performing of
the short dance sequences (shiinai) under the tutorage of
professional Noh performers. They take up Noh with the same
enthusiasm that they play golf, or go to the racetrack or base-
ball stadium. Unlike Kabuki or any other form of classical
theater, anyone who is interested can become an active participant
in amateur performances of Noh as well as being a critical
spectator of professional performances.
This does not mean that Noh is a simple art to master;
quite to the contrary, it requires a lifetime of intensive practice,
for Noh is a most exacting art, including elements comparable
to opera (chanting), drama (miming), ballet (stylized dance
forms), and orchestration (three, or four, instruments), plus
the totally different art of impersonation in female, warrior,
old-age, spirit, animal, demon, or heavenly-being roles. It is
thus not surprising that a professional may be still considered
immature at the age of fifty !
The purpose of Noh is neither the portraying of a storj' nor
the teaching of a moral, but simply the expression of beauty.
This basic principle is called YUGEN, the highest ideal of
the aesthetic concept of Noh. From Zeami to the present all
interpretive writing about Noh has revolved around YUGEN
which, as a Zen term, has never been — and cannot be — actually
defined. Suffice it to say that YUGEN is conceived of as the
most gracefully refined expression of beauty : beauty which is
felt — as the shadow of a cloud momentarily before the moon,
and an echo of a softly flowing brook, are felt.
NOH AS A STAGE PERFORMANCE
rraditionally participants in a regular performance are male.
PERFORMERS
Every production of a Noli requires : actors, chorus, and
musicians. In addition, stage attendants (KOKEN) are present.
The actors are divided strictly by groups, independent of each
otiier. each with its own tradition, training, and discipline :
SHITE— the main actor; with TSURE ('accompanying") to
till subsidiary roles ; and KOK.ATA. child actors.
WAKI— the secondary actor ('beside'— to sit aside) : with
WAKI TSURE, usually just 'walk-on' parts.
KYOGEN -performers of the INTKRIA'DES ( AI KYOGEN).
and KY'OGEN, the farces put on between Noh ; also, to fill
in as servants to announce an arrival, a Local Person to
inform the traveler about the place, etc.
These three types of performers are in turn grouped under
traditional family troupes or 'schools" (RYU), each headed by
an lEMOTO who is responsible for carrying on the traditions
of the art. training the members, and maintaining the necessary
discipline. (The lEMOTO SY'STEM comes under periodic
attack, mainly from outside— or young— critics, as a feudalistic
anachronism but remains an irreplaceable necessity.)
The CHORUS is made up of members of the SHITE group.
MUSIC
A Noh is performed to the accomfaniment of one each of
three or four types of instruments (except OKINA which takes
several of the same drums) :
FL^E — a transverse bamboo flute
KOTSUZUMI— a hand drum held at the shoulder
OTSUZUMI— a hand drum held at the hip
TAIKO (not used for all Noh)— comparable to a snare drum,
held horizontally on a low frame before the player.
STAGE PROPERTIES
The Noh stage is never encumbered with nicirc llian the
barest suggestion of a set, depending upon the singing and
the conventionalized gestures of the actor (a slight movement
of the hands, a faraway glance) to stimulate the imaginative
sensibility of the spectator to feel the setting, which is after
all more a poetic state than a physical place.
NOTES
Sliii/iai (dance sequences) and iitai (the whole sung part
of a Noh) are often performed independently, especially on such
occasions as BEKKAI (Special Spring and Autumn Perform-
ances) or Memorial Performances, and by amateurs.
The music can also be played as solo performances but
such recitals are few and seem to be more for the practice and
enjoyment of the musicians than for public entertainment.
KYOGEN parts are recited in an entirely different manner
than Ktai ; they wear yellow tab! (divided socks) ; a funny
little white cap with a long sash hanging loosely down on
either side of the bare face indicates a feminine role.
The stage properties (tsiikiirimono) are carried on and
off the stage — often during the performance— by the KOKEN,
members of the SHITE group, who must adjust the SHITE"S
costume, hand him the necessary implements {kudogu) or pick
up the ones cast away during the performance.
The costumes have in general been standardized for the past
several centuries but the infinite variations in color and pattern
of the fabrics permits pleasing adjustments to changing popular
taste and personal predilections of individual actors. A more
limited range of choice is also permitted for the masks to be
used for many of the Noh.
THE STRUCTURE OF A NOH
Actually, no two Noli are of identical construction, but most
follow one of several standard patterns. —
The most common is a play of two balanced parts, consisting
of MAE ("former') and NOCHI ('latter'), separated by the
AI ('between'), with a MAE SHITE for the first part and
NOCHI SHITE in the last part, usually with one or more
TSURE; a WAKI, often with WAKI TSURE— usually remain-
ing on the stage through the AI (INTERLUDE), during which
the AI KYOGEN fills the time while the SHITE changes
costume. This type usually employs a stage property.
A shorter type, constructed essentially as of two acts, has
only a short introductory prelude followed by the main play;
though the long INTERLUDE is not used, a KYOGEN actor
may open the play with an explanatory introduction, or fulfill
the same function just before the main part. In this type
there are some odd moments of waiting while absolutely nothing
is happening on stage.
The true one-act play is as a rule more intense and vigorous,
with the main participants (usually two) remaining actively on
the stage from their first appearance to the end.
An infinite number of variations of construction are possible.
In addition, many variations are possible in staging : certain
dance sequences, or even whole sections of a play, may be
dropped ; additional roles may be added ; the NOCHI of a
two-act play is often performed alone, as a HAN('half')-NOH.
In some few Nob the WAKI role is almost as important
as the SHITE, but a small number of Noh have no WAKI,
many Noh have no TSURE, or WAKI TSURE.
CLASSIFICATION OF NOH BY THEME
All Noh except OKINA, which stands alone, are classified
technically into five groups (though this is variable) ;
FIRST GROUP
WAKI Noh. Auspicious performances for congratulant
occasions, with at least one Divine Being or similar person
who performs a Kciiiii Mai ('(iod Dance') or other dance
of equivalent dignity. C^oi. "-'^■'^ V>'-^
SECOND GROUP
WARRIOR PIECE (SHURAMONO ASURA Noh.)
The SHITE role is the spirit of a famous warrior of old, ,o.j.vjf">
in most cases from the Genji-Heike Wars (12th century) ;
including a vigorous dance with a sword or other weapon.
THIRD GROUP
KAZURA ('wig") Noh. Expressing feminine gracefulness; ^^j-^''
the tempo is exceedingly slow, movements are sublimely
restrained, the dances are yugen (p. v) personified. These
are the core of Noh ; and a typical program of three Noh
has one of the Third Group as the central piece.
FOURTH GROUP
A miscellaneous group includin.g all Noh not in the other
classifications, the majority being either MONOGURUI ^^i^^'*^-
('lunatic') or GENZAI MONO ('living persons'). In most
MONOGURUI the lunacy is induced by the loss of a son,
husband, or lover, the deranged searching for the lost one,
expressed by Kiind or an equivalent dance ; GENZAI
MONO have more dramatic conflict and relatively realistic
action than other Noh.
FIFTH GROUP
KIRI ('ending') Noh. Generally a demon, ogress, or
malicious spirit appears before or attacks a priest or warrior
who utterly defeats it ; or a diety or iir\aginary creature
performs a vigorously entertaining dance.
MASKS
The SHITE (particularly in the NOCIII) wears a mask
except in a few Noh.
The TSURE in a female role wears the standard TSURE
MASK, a simple KO OMOTE lacking indivitlual personality or
expression — unless the role is important in the Noh.
A KOKATA does not wear a mask.
The WAKI does not wear a mask: nor do WAKI TSURE.
A KYOGEN in a Noh does not wear a mask, even when
portraying a female role ; but an AI KYOGEN (performing for
the INTERLUDE) may, especially as a supernatural being.
I Li. ■•Ill III iiw
Chiijo
Hannya \\^
Shiuja
Ayakashi
Komachi
Obeshimi
Oakujo
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©The stage proper ©Gurtairi
© Where chorus sit © Mirror Room ( I back
©Where masician^ sit ® pebbles
©HASHKiAKARI ©Audience
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OK I N A
OKINA
OKINA is a ceremonial Noh for an auspicious occasion, such
as the first performance of the year, or a commemoration
performance. It consists of several songs and three dances:
The Senzai's Dance
The Okina's Dance
The Sambas5's Dance
OKINA MASK
— 3 —
A IhLWSLATlON
TOMOE
Setting
Awazu Field, in Cimi Province (on the shores of Lake Biwa)
Persons
Tomoe (SHITE)
A traveling monk (WAKIi
WAKI & CHORUS:
If I fry, faraway mountains ore not so far ;
If I tread on, faraway forests can be traversed.
I journey on the KIso Highroad.
\\ .\KI : I am o monk from the remote mountain district of Kiso.
As I hove never seen the Capital I have decided to go there.
Crossing the pass, journeying on
Farther and farther, unto the end.
Since the day I set out through the provinces
Unscheduled days have passed till now
I look upon a sea that must be Lake Biwa.
Hastening onward, I have arrived at Awazu Field in Omi Province.
I shall rest a while.
SHITK : {s/'iril of Toiiiot', as a i-llluiiV iiuiicl) How pleasant !
At the shore of Biwa, calm and peaceful. Under the pines of
Awazu Field enshrine a diety and be governed well. It is a happy
reign blessed with grace divine. (^ccrpnii;)
WAKI : It is strange that this woman worships at the shrine,
shedding tears. . . 'Tis strange indeed.
SHITE is it I of whom you speak ?
WAKI ; Yes, I wonder that you worship at the shrine and
weep.
SHITIi : Think not it strange ! 'Tis said that when the priest
Gyokyo worshiped at Usa Hachimon he composed the poem :
Though this god I do not know
Reverence mokes the tears to flow.
And the diety was so moved he blessed him by showing the
images of Buddhas on his kimono sleeves. It was the same diety
who later appeared at Otokoyama neor the Capital, and has since
been a patron diety of the country. So do not think it strange if
I weep before the shrine.
WAKI ; It is a pleasing answer. Women near the Capital are
accomplished.
SHITE : Where are you from ?
WAKI: I'm from a mountain hamlet of the Kiso district in
Shinano.
SHITE : If you are from Kiso it is not surprising that you
do not know who the diety is enshrined here— it is Yoshinaka Kiso,
who is from your district. Pray do reverence to him, sir.
WAKI : What a marvel for Yoshinoka Kiso to be enshrined here!
(they kiiccl rcvcroitly in turn)
CHORUS: (for SUITE) This lord is still renowned and now
appears as a buddha and local diety guarding our world. Since you
from some mystical cause stopped here as a traveler, if it please
you now remain beneath this pine tonight and say prayers for him.
See day is done
By the lowering sun ;
Hear the evening bell
The vespers tell
On ripples that run
'long the v/ater's edge.
All things around are under a spell
As I forth from
The netherworld come —
And if my name
Unknown remain
Enquire of some
folk of the village.
Then to her place returning again ;
In the glooming shadows
Fading from sight
Among the grasses
In the falling night.
In the INTERLUDE the priest asks a Man of the
Place about Yoshinaka Kiso and the woman warrior
Tomoe. The man narrates at length Yoshinaka's
final battle and death and Toinoe's escape.
\^'AKI : Darkness has already fallen. I pass the night here on
the dewy gross to pray for those who fell in battle on this field.
<aiii
(Tomoe reappears, in battle attire)
SHITE : Falling flowers life's vanity show forth ;
Flowing waters do purify themselves.
So now I escape the ever-flowing cycle
CHORUS : Of suffering sin and folly's retribution.
Insentient plants and land may be saved by the sutra —
Much more a mortal may attain Nirvana !
How filled am I with gratitude and joy I
Filled to blessed overflowing I
WAKI ; Staying here the night, I see the woman whom I saw
before, but now she is armed a; prepared for battle. It is strange.
SHI IE: Yes, I am the woman warrior Tomoe. Because I am
a woman I was left behind at his death, and my bitter grievance
binds me to this world.
WAKI : Your attachment to this world makes you visible.
SHITE ; I'm waiting on my lord but the resentment diminishes not.
CHORUS: (far SIIITK) At that time I wanted to die on
that shore and follow him into the after-life. Unwillingly I was
left behind at the last moment because I was a woman.
(zcccps)
Everyone accepts that one's strength should be used for favors
received, and life should be cost aside for honor. A warrior's
achievement at death is respected by everyone.
{iits on stool)
CHORUS: Yoshinaka left Shinano with a host fifty thousand
strong to flght against the Heike. In the battles he was distinguished
for victories and bravery. Such things are all done for honor after
death. But when the fatal time came no more could he retreat
and met his end here on the shore ot Awazu Field. You are a
monk from the same district as YoshinaKu, so please pray for him.
WAKI: Please tell me of the end of Yoshinaka who was killed
here.
— 5 —
SI 11 11-! V.V: ellOKlS: If was January. He fled along ths
snow-patched woy to this shore, his life dependent on his horse,
which falling into o mudd/ ics-coated rice poddy, cojid move
neither to right nor left. (mliiiiiiii his i.ulitm) Stirrups sinking
into the mud, no way to alight, he grasped the rein; and whipped
up the horse but it didn't move, and not knowing what to do he
stood still. In ostonishement I hurried my horse to him {Diiiniiiii
lur tiwii i/i7;ii;;) and found that he was bodly wounded. I put
him on the other horse and followed him to this fi3ld of pine,
urging him to kill himself, vowing to die with him. Th3n Yoshinoko
said : " As you ore a woman there must be some way for you
to live undiscovered. Here is my guardian tag and my KOSODE
(i^aniii'iit). Take them to KIso. If you disobey me the relation
of lord and retainer for three lives be severed forever." Knowing
not how to a.nswer but in tears, I stood up to leave him I u'l'i'J'iiiii),
when the enamy attacked, shouting: "It is the woman warrior
Tomoe, don't let her get away!" Now there was no escape
even if it were sought. Lucky for me that I could fight I Calmly
I pulled up my halberd and looked frightened to draw the enemy
closer. {iiiliiling the cnnihat ) Whsn they fell upon me I handled
the halberd to its best use, like a raging storm ; the enemy were
pushed back and fled afar. "This is the end," I thought then,
and came back to my master, but he had already killed himself
under this pine tree, leaving his tag and garment beside him.
Weeping, I took them up and bode farewell to my dead lord.
Though too striken with grief to leave the place, I had to go in
obedience to his will ; so ta'<ing off armor and hat at the shore
and putting on Yoshinaka's keepsake garment (liiiiiigi/lg cas/iii/ic) ,
armed with a short sword hidden beneath it, fled alone to Kiso.
(ii'('t'/>;;;.tf) The regret of being left at that time still clings to
me as an attachment to this world.
{Pcrfoniii Li sliart claiici')
I beg of you, please pray for me.
Othsr Noh of Yoshinaka:
KANEHIRA. A priest enroute to Awazu (sea TOMOE above) talks with
a boatman, who after he arrives there comes to him in a dream as
the warrior Kanehira and describes the battle in which he and
Yoshinaka died.
KISO. On a military campaign Yoshinaka seads petitions attached to
an arrow to the nearby Hachiman Shrine, then takes part in an
entertainment arranged for him by the local people, during which
white doves fly out from the s'lrine in an auspicious omen for his
future victories.
AKOei
When a priest (WAKI) on a pilgrimage to Ise Shrine stops at
Akogi Beach, an old fisherman (SHITE) appears, lamenting
that his clothes are wet not only from the sea but also by
the tears he sheds when he thinks about his sin as a fisherman —
the taking of any life transgresses Buddha's commandment.
After they both quote poems about poaching on forbidden
fishing grounds, he tells how the beach got the name Akogi.
Since the founding of Ise Shrine the fish from this beach have
been used for offerings. Perchance by that god's blessing, the
fish were plentiful, so fishermen wanted to fish there, but were
forbidden. Then a fisherman called Akogi poached there night
after night till he was finally caught and punished by being
drowned in that very sea. His life was sinful as a fisherman
yet more than that he fished illicitly. He left the name Akogi
notorious in this world and in the other world he suffers cease-
lessly. He is coveting prayers for his soul. The priest pities
him, understanding that the ghost of Akogi has appeared to tell
his story. The fisherman asks him to wait there. A misty
dusk settles down and the fisherman hurries to finish his fishing,
but a sudden gust sweeps over the sea, making the waves rise ;
the fishing lights go out. The old fisherman calls out as he
disappears among the waves.
In the INTERLUDE a Man of the Place (KYOGEN)
at the priest's request narrates the story of Akogi.
^^ hile the priest recites scriptures Akogi reappears, carrying
a fishing net. Though repenting his past he still cannot give
up his illicit fishing. Blessed prayers come to his ears but,
alas ! his heart still attached to fishing, he is in instant
torment again. After describing his sufferings in Hell he
sinks again into the sea, begging the priest's help.
SHITE; Jr,
NOCHI SHITE: Kawazu
Stage Property
Fishing pole and net
3. For a similar theme see
UKAI, p. 89.
— 7
AMA
BACKGROUND
Minister of State Tankai Fujiwara's younger sister was married to
the Chinese Emperor Koso, who presented three treasures to her
family temple, the Kufukuji in Nara. A Sea Dragon, hearing of this
and desiring them, succeeded in making off with one, a jewel, enroute
(near Fusazaki Beach, at Shido, in Shikoku). Minister Tankai went
privately to retrieve the jewel, and while there had a child by an
ama (girl diver). On condition that this child should succeed to the
Minister's position, she recovered the jewel, but at the cost of her
life; and in due time the son became the Minister Fusazaki.
NOH
The Minister Fusazaki (KOKATA) goes with his atlendaiils
(WAKI and WAKI TSURE) to the beach at Shido where his
mother died, to offer Buddhist services for her soul. When
they arrive at Shido they are met b)' a fishervvoman (SHITE),
who relates to them the dramatic recovery of the purloined
jewel ; (rcidistically inliin'/iii /lie arlion)
The AMA ( diver ) receives the solemn promise of Minister Tankoi to
make their child his successor if she recovers the jewel. Declaring :
" I would gladly forfeit my life for my child's happiness," she ties
a rope about herself, so the people on shore con pull her up when
she signals, and jumps into the sea, armed with a sharp dagger.
Arriving at the Dragon Palace she sees a towering structure formed of
jewels. Eight big dragons guard the jewel in the tower, with other
fiarce fish and crocodiles about. It seems impossible that she can
escape with her life. The thought causes her to yearn for her family
her child and his father the Minister beyond the waves. She is
momentarily overcome with grief and stands weeping, but, resolved to
carry out her mission, clasps her hands in prayer for help of
Konnon of Shido Temple, and leaps upon the stronghold. At her
sudden ottack the guards draw back and she seizes the jewel
and flees with it. Hotly pursued, she cuts her breast, as she hod
planned to do if necessary, and pushes the jewel into the wound.
Casting aside her dagger she collapses. (Now the Undersea Dragons
won't come near a deed body, so hey don't close n. ) When
8 —
she tugs at the rope the people on the shore rejoice at the signal
and pull her out of the water, her body all gory from her wounds.
The Minister laments: "Now both the jewel and the girl are lost,"
but she bids him with her dying breath to probe beneath her breast,
and there he finds the radiantly sparkling jewel.
The fisherwoman turns to the Minister; "So now you are
the Minister Fusazaki according to promise— named from this
beach. I have revealed all; I am your mother, the diver's
spirit. Read what is written here {handing over a scroll —
represented by a fan), never doubting; and pray for my soul.
It is now time for me to go back but I will come to you again
at night;"' and disappears below the waves.
In the INTERLUDE a Man of the Place
(KYOGEN) reviews the background.
The Minister reads his mother's letter (Note 1, a) aloud
{holding the fan as a representation of the scroll), then recites
prayers for her soul during which she comes as a Dragon
Woman, carrying a scroll (Note 1, b) from which she reads.
She dances in the happiness of salvation obtained through
his prayers.
Since then this temple at Shido has prospered.
NOTES
1. a
a. Mother's Letter; She begs him for prayers for her soul:
having lain these thirteen years in desolate loneliness,
b . HOKEKYO ; Book of Parables of the Lotus Sutra.
Masks and Headcear
SHITE; Fu'kai
NOCHI SHITE; Hasluhime with dragon headgear
Dances
Tama no Dan (miming the narrative)
Havatnai (expressing joy)
For use of KOKATA, see ATAKA, NOTE 5. p. 13.
AMA_ is unique among Noh in the realistic actions and gestures
executed in the miming of the story, in contrast to the con-
•^ntional reliance upon abstract, symholic riiovements:
— 9
AOI NO UE
BACKGROIND
Aoi no Uc. the wife of Prince Genji (in GENJI MONOGATARl),
has been stricken with a strange illness, due to the jealousy and hatred
of Lady Rokujo. a neglected lover of Prince Genji. As the play
opens, a high Court official, an attendant of the retired Emperor,
announces that a sorceress renowned for her powers of exorcism has
been called to the bedside of Aoi no Ue— who is represented by a
folded robe lying at the front of the stage.
NOH
A Court official (WAKl rSURE) enters, introduces himself and
explains that, all other cures having failed, he has been sent
to bring a sorceress renowned for birch-bow divination, to
identify the pernicious spirit causing Lady Aoi's deathly malady.
The sorceress (TSURE) chants an incantation, plucking the bow.
Rokujo (SHITE) appears as an apparition, invisible to the
Court official, riding in a dilapidated carriage, singing of the
fraility of life, and her own disconsolate state.
The sorceress describes the pitiful sight ; a lady of the
nobility in a broken-down coach, weeping copiously.
{Rokujo making the conventional Noh gesture of ■weepi7ig')
The Court official asks her name.
Rokujo sings :
But don't you yet know ?
I am Rokujo
Who loved this world long years ago.
With many another Imperial guest
Viewing each season at its best.
- The cherry trees in springtime bloom,
Among the maple the autumn moon —
Luxuriously those days I spent,
In bright apparel, and pleasant scent.
How different now I hove become !
A morning-glory withered by the rising sun. (NOTE 1, a)
— 10
Rokujo, overcome with intense jealousy, attacks Aoi {striking
her fan ut the folded robe'), undaunted by the sorceress' stern
reproof. (Note 1. b) {stepping back, gazing at Aoi)
Rokujo expresses her hatred, ending :
I will put Aoi in my tattered coach
And secretly carry her off
And quietly bear her away.
As Aoi's condition is .growing grievously worse, a messenger
(KYOGEN) is sent for the holy man of Yokawa (WAKI), who
performs effective exorcism in the mode of En no Gyoja,
originator of yamabnshi mountain asceticism. (Note 2)
Rokujo's jealousy now takes the form of a demon.
{taking a defiant stance, then siting in an arrogant pose)
The holy man continues his incantation (Note 3), finally
subduing the demon, who then dances :
With heart grown gentle.
Entering Nirvana
Out of life and death
All praise be to Buddha.
NOTES
1. Literary and classical references
a. Quoted from a ivaka in HORIKAWA HYAKUSHU :
i see the morning-glory in bloom
When I get up at dawn
When the sun has begun to shine
Its beauty all is gone.
b. Uzvanari Uchi
In her rebuke the sorceress refers to iizcanari uchi, a
custom among the lower classes in the Muromachi Period : when
a wife was cast out for another, she and her female relatives
or friends would force themselves into the husband's house
and beat her supplantor.
2. See ATAKA, NOTE 4, p. 13.
3. Calling on the five most powerful incarnations of Buddha.
See Benkei's prayer against the phantom in FUNA BENKEI, p. 24.
4. Masks
SHITE : Deigati
NOCHI SHITE: Hannya
TSURE : tsure mask
Another Noh of Rokujo :
NONO.'^IYA. A priest viewing the ruins of Nonomiya Palace is told by
a woman that Prince Genji, on this same day many long years ago,
came here to visit Lady Rokujo, who then appears and tells the story
of the carriage fight : When Aoi no Ue arrives at the Kamo Festival
to watch the parade, in which Genji is taking part, her footmen
scuffle with those of another carriage (which turns out to be,
unknown to Aoi no Ue, that of Rokujo) which is blocking their way,
and jostle it aside so Aoi no Ue is moved up ahead into a fine
position ; such an incident naturally rankles Rokujo deeply and is
presumably the immediate cause of the episode in AOI NO UE.
U
ARASHIYAMA
BACKGROUND
ARASHIYAMA is one of those Noh (Cf. EGUCHI, p. 20) which
was worked up from several irrelevant legendary or fictional sources,
related by cognate names to a famous scenic or historical place.
NOH
An Imperial Envoy (WAKI) goes with his attendants (WAKI
TSURE) to view the famous cherry blossoms at .Aj-ashiyama.
as proxy of the Emperor.
Two old people meet them there ; the woman (TSURE)
representing the goddess Katsute. the man (SHITE) the god
Komori. each carrying a besom for sweeping under the cherry
trees : explaining that, being guardian dieties of the Yoshino
cherry trees, they have come to Arashiyama as these trees were
transplanted from the famous Yoshino district. After some
song and dance they retire, telling them to wait there.
In the INTERLUDE a minor diety of Yoshino
(KYoGEN icearing mask), sent by the two dieties
to thank and entertain them, sings and dances.
The two dieties (NOCHI TSURE) reappear in their true
form, carrying sprays of cherry blossoms ; they perform a dance
together, then are joined by the Yoshino diety Zao Gongen
(NOCHI SHITE), who inspired En no Gyoja, the founder of
mountain asceticism in Yoshino.
NOTES
1. The NOCHI TSURE play relatively important roles, for they
perform a Mai (dance) while the SHITE does not.
2. Masks
SHITE: Jo
TSURE : I'ba
NOCHI SHITE: Otobide
NOCHI TSURE: Kantan Otokn and tsure mask
3. Dance Out no Mai (by NOCHI TSURE together)
4. TSUKURIMONO Cherry trees
ATAKA
BACKGROUND
Yoshitsune, under proscription by his elder brother Yoritomo, the
Shogun at Kamakura (NOTEl), flees northward with his band under
Benkei in the guise of yamahushi priests (NOTE 4). They know
that check-points along the way have been alerted.
The Kabuki version of this Noh is called KANJINCHO.
NOH
Togashi (WAKI). the Keeper of the Ataka Barrier, cautions
his men to be on guard for the fugitives.
Yoshitsune (KOKATA) enters with Benkei (SHITE) and the
others (TSURE). They confer on how best to get past, and
Benkei puts Yoshitsune in their rear, as their porter.
(wearing a large ha! hiding /lis features)
12
Stopped under grievous threat, Benkei first breathes dire NOTES
imprecations against whoever dare harm a vaina/ti/shi. then, ^■
2
to prove they are bona fide yaniabuslii on a legitimate mission
of collecting funds, purports to read from a scroll the 3.
Subscription Roll, making it up as he goes along, at the same
time skillfully preventing Togashi from checking it. ^
But as they pass, Yoshitsune is recognized. In an attempt to
allay their suspicions, Benkei strikes the " porter," heaping
abuse upon him for getting them into trouble. Then in awesome 5.
mien they pass the trembling guards.
Safely through the barrier, Benkei expresses his shame for
having been forced to such an outrageous act but Yoshitune
praises the gods for supplying Benkei with such wit as the
occasion demanded for their escape. A servant (KYOGEN)
then announces that Togashi wishes to offer a present of sake
by way of apology ; and Benkei entertains them with a dance.
Sec FUNA BENKEI, BACKGROUND, p. 24.
Dance
Otoko Mai Benkei's congratulatory dance at the end.
Costumes
All the band (except the porter, who is a KYOGEN) wear
the conventional costume of YAMABUSHI priests.
YAMABUSHI
The YAMABUSHI priests were loosely affiliated itinerant
mountain ascetics, followers of En no Gyoja, an ascetic hermit
in Yamato in the seventh century. (See KAZURAKI, p. 40)
KOKATA
Child actors (KOKATA) serve several functions in Noh ; i.e. :
a. A child's part
The ghost of the lost child in SUMIDAGAWA : the child
in MIIDERA, KURAMA TENGU, etc.
b. Portrayal of persons of nobility or imperial rank when
such roles are incidental to the Noh; e.g., Yoshitsune
in this Noh and in FUNA BENKEI ; the Emperor in SOSHI
ARAI, KUZU, etc.
■^^
»*.4
13 —
ATSUMOPI
T -i~
BACKGROUND
At the decisive Battle of Ichinotani on Suma Bay, during the Genji-
Heike Wars, Atsumori, scion of the Heike Clan, fell by the hand of
the Genji warrior Kumagai. Beside the dead body lay a bamboo flute,
which Kumagai later returned to Atsumori's son.
NOH
Kumagai (WAKI), having renounced this world, in remorse
for the death of the youthful Atsumori, to become a priest
under the name Rensho, journeys from Kyoto to the scene of
the Battle of Ichinotani on Suma Bay. there to offer prayers
for the repose of Atsumori's soul.
He hears the sound of a flute, and four reapers (SHITE and
TSURE) appear, singing a mournful song (Note 1). As he
engages one of them in conversation, the others leave. When
he remarks on this, the young man makes a request for prayer
"as one of the family of Atsumori." He joyfully complies,
{kneeling in pniyer) and the youth vanishes.
In the INTERLUDE, a Man of the Place
(KYOGEN) recapitulates Atsumori's death.
In a dream as it were Atsumori reappears in his true form
as a young Heike warrior. Then follows an interminable sing-
ing of pious expressions of the vanity of life, (as he dances)
interwoven with the story of the fate of the Heike Clan :
Like leafy green branches of a spreading tree
Stretching over the earth for all to see;
But fortune that lasted for only a day —
Like flowers of the field soon fading away.
They knew not that darkness that was soon to be !
14
As flashes of flint-sparks are but briefly seen
Surely, the life of man is wretched and mean !
In their arrogant pride they oppressed the poor
Thus haughtily ruling twenty years and more.
A life-time is passed in the space of a dream.
Their scattered ships floated on the Suma sea —
Wild geese in broken ranks on doubtful journey.
Like autumn leaves driven before the wind
Not even in dreams to return again ;
In sorrow they lay at Ichinotcni.
Atsumori recalls the party the night before their last desperate
battle, {perforniing a dance) mentioning the flute he carried
when he died ; then recounts being left behind and his fatal
encounter (nuDiing /he eonihat) with Kumagai. (Note 5)
"My enemy!" he cries, and would strike.
{raising his szvord against the priest )
But in the end he is reconciled through salvation attained by
Kumagai's fervent prayers.
NOTES
1. Literary Reference
The reapers sing :
On the shores of Sumo
I too live in sadness.
(like Yukihira; See NOTE 2, b)
2. Suma Bay is associated, in various Noh, with;
a. The Battle of Ichinotani — The Heike's defeat by the Genji Clan.
b. The exile of the poet Yukihira (See MATSUKAZE, p. 50).
c. The exile of Prince Genji, in GENJI MONOGATARI.
3. Mask NOCHI SHITE: Juroku
4. Dance Chu no Alai
5. The popular Kabuki of KUMAGAI tells this part of the story.
Another Noh of Atsumori:
IKUTA ATSUMORI. The orphaned child of Atsumori meets his father's
ghost at Ikuta Forest.
— 15 —
AYA NO TSUZUMI
BACKGROUND
An old gardener at an Imperial palace chanced to sec one of the
Emperor's Ladies walking in the grounds, and fell disconsolately in
love with her. Hearing of it, she set him the impossible task of making
sound from a drum of damask. When he failed, he drowned himself.
NOH
A Court official (W.^KI) enters with his servant (KYOGEN)
and explains the old gardener's love for the Lady, who
responded, " Ah, love knows no coste of high or low. . . " then ordered :
"Have him beot the drum that hangs in the branches of the laurel
tree by the pool. If it makes a sound that can be heard at the
Palace, he will see me once more."
He has the servant call the gardener (SHITE) to whom he
conveys the instructions and retires.
The old gardener gazes long at the drum in an ecstasy of
hope : '■ I will strike this drum again and again, harder and
harder, that I may see her." He strikes the drum with all his
energy, unaware that it is covered with damask. There is not
a sound from the drum. Is it because of his aged ears ?. . .
He vainly beats it— listening, listening. . . He sings and dances
in bitter disappointment, and, overwhelmed by self-pity at his
unparalleled misery, casts himself into the pool and drowns.
In the INTERLUDE the servant sympathizes with
the old gardener, whose death he at once reports
to the official, who in turn tells the Lady.
The Lady (TSURE) stands transfixed before the tree,
possessed by his angry spirit as he comes forth as an embittered
demon. In a frenzy, he commands her to strike the damask
drum and when no sound comes out rails upon her till she
utters an agonized cry- for mercy, but he turns into an evil
snake and sinks back into the pool with unabated malice.
NOTES
1. Masks
SHITE: Jo
NOCHI SHITE: Oakuio
TSURE: Ko Omote
2. The TSURE, though actually on the stage from the first, is not
" present " until spoken to at the beginning of the second part.
3. This ending is unique in Nob, for the bound or angry spirit
which appears is ordinarily released or appeased at the end.
A similar Noh :
KOI NO OMONI is an almost identical Noh, varying in but two points:
1) the task set is to carry an immovably heavy stone "a hundred
or a thousand times around the garden."
2) the anger of the gardener's spirit is appeased in the end.
— 16 —
CHIKUBUSHIMA
BACKGROUND
Chikubushima (chikii— ' bamboo ' ; shima — ' island ') is an island shrine
in Lake Biwa dedicated to Benzaiten, popularly known as Benten
Sama, originally a Japanese (Shinto) goddess, syncretized into
Buddhism as an incarnation of Amida Buddha (NOTE 1).
NOH
An Imperial Court official (WAKI) and his attendants (WAKI
TSURE) on their way to Chikubushima arrive on the shore of
Lake Biwa. They sit down to wait for an approaching boat
carrying an old man (SHITE) and a woman (TSURE).
The Court official asks to be taken to Chikubushima. The
old man objects that his boat is not a ferry, but agrees to
take them as an act of religious service since they are going
to the shrine. They go aboard and he rows, describing the
scenery. Arriving at Chikubushima, they disembark and the
old man takes them to the Benten Shrine. The Court official
asks about the woman, as he has heard that the island is
forbidden to women. He is told that since this shrine is
dedicated to the worship of Benzaiten, a feminine incarnation
of Amida Buddha, of course women should worship here.
The woman then disappears into the shrine.
In the INTERLUDE a shrine priest (KYOGEN)
shows their treasures : a key to the storehouse, a
rosary, a forked branch of bamboo and a ball by
which fire and water can be controlled.
As the shrine quakes, the woman reappears as a goddess
(NOCHI TSURE). Then a Dragon God (NOCHI SHITE)
appears as another manifestation of Buddha. He carries a 'fire
globe", which he gives to the Court official, along with silver,
gold, and other treasures.
He performs a dance before the shrine.
(co/icliidiiig zvith a vigorous inoTpiiiciit before the curtain)
NOTES
1. Classical reference
As the SHITE (the old man with the boat) explains on their
arrival at the shrine, this goddess, Benzaiten, is the reincarnation
of gracious Kujo Nyorai, for it was one of Amida's 48 prayers
that women might attain salvation.
2. Masks
SHITE: Jo
TSURE : tsure mask
NOCHI SHITE: Kurohige
3. Dances
Te/iftyo nu Mai
Alaibataraki
KIRI
4. TSUKURIMONO
A representation of a boat. {Sec FUNA BENKEI, NOTE 3, p. 25)
A covered framework representing the shrine.
Other Noh of Benten:
UROKO GATA. Benten on Enoshima gives a warrior his battle banner.
In ENOSHIMA the origin of the island is told, with its patron diety
Benten and a dragon-god.
17
DOJOJI
BACKGROUND
A beautiful girl was in love with a young priest, who fled from
her to a temple. The spurned woman, furious at being unable to
follow him over a swollen river, changed herself into a huge snake
and swam across. Her terrified quarry had hidden himself under the
temple's bell so she coiled herself around the bell and in a burning
passion melted it into a molten mass. In due time, a new bell is
cast to replace the one thus destroyed and is now about to be installed.
NOH
The head of the temple (WAKI) gives directions that special
care be taken that no female be allowed in the temple com-
pound, as he fears the same woman may attempt to destroy
this new bell about to be hung.
But in spite of his warning, when a beautiful dancer (SHITE)
appears at the gate and begs permission to perform in com-
memoration of the new bell, the temple servants (KYOGEN)
have not the will to refuse, and allow her to enter. In the
ensuing dance, one of the most engrossing in Noh, the dancer's
true nature is gradually revealed; till in a frenzy, she leaps
directly into the bell, as it crashes to the ground, the terrified
young men tumbling about acrobatically.
In the INTERLUDE the priests confer and decide
it is the same woman who destroyed the original
bell, who came in the form of a snake.
The bell quakes and she emerges as a snake !
Then follows a dramatic conflict between the priests and the
demonic passion, with the power of their prayers prevailing in
the end.
NOTES
1. Masks
SHITE: Shim Shakumi
NOCHI SHITE: Shinja or Ilannya
2. Dances
Ranbyoshi an exceedingly exacting dance of slow turnings
and foot movements.
Kvu no Mai
3. UNIQUE TSUKURIMONO
The bell is unlike any other stage property in Noh, and is
used only for this Noh. The large ring hanging above the
center of the stage and a similar one on the pillar at the
rear are installed on every Noh stage, solely for the purpose
of manipulating the bell for Doioji.
4. The HIGH POINT of the Noh is reached as the dancer's true
nature is revealed, just before leaping into the bell.
18
EBIRA
BACKGROUND
In the great battle between the Heike and Genji clans, at Ikuta, the
Genji warrior Kagesue Kajiwara broke off a bough of a plum tree in
bloom to carry in his quiver (ehira) as his emblem.
NOH
A traveling priest (WAKI) and attendants (WAKI TSURE)
arrive at Ikuta. A villager (SHITE) appears, singing:
Time passes swiftly as
An arrow shot from a bow —
Swift OS the waters of
This River Ikuta flow.
When the priest asks about a plum tree there, he tells the
story of the spray of blossoms from this tree carried in the
warrior's quiver.
The battle is then described in song.
When he has revealed that he is the ghost of that warrior
he disappears.
In the INTERLUDE a Man of the Place (KYOGEN)
recites the story of the plum tree and the battle.
The warrior reappears as when he carried the spray of plum
blossoms in his quiver. He describes by song and ^^jnce first
the torments of the perpetual sword play in the Asura Hell
(Dinning combat), then the battle at Ikuta.
The priest awakes : it is dawn. Begging for prayers, the
spirit returns to torment.
NOTES
1. Mask
NOCHI SHITE : Hcula
2. Dance
Kakeri (expressing torment of the Asura Hell)
3. For other Noh eulogizing the aesthetic sensibility of a warrior.
see TADANORI, p. 66; and TSUNEMASA, p. 75.
— 19
EeUCHI
BACKGROUND
The story in EGUCHl is from an ambiguous synthesis of several
obscure Uterary traditions; but it is a Noh with the exquisite unity
of a thing of beauty. The references are to ;
A famed courtesan of Eguchi in Settsu. (NOTE 1, a.)
The Fugen Bosatsu. (NOTE 1, b)
(Basho's later HAIKU on Eguchi the courtesan in Niigata is another
facet of this legend with grosser implications.)
NOH
A traveling monk (WAKI), arriving at Eguchi with his
attendants (WAKI TSURE), seeks the place where the Lady
of Eguchi lived in bygone days, and is directed there by a
Man of the Place (KYOGEN).
Standing where she once lived he recalls the old tale, and
quotes Saigyo's poem (Note 1, c). when a woman (SHITE) comes
presenting an apologia for the action of the Lady of Eguchi.
(Quoting her answer (Note 1. d), she points out that she had
good reason to refuse a man of the cloth lodging in " such a
house... a notorious place of pleasure," and begs the monk not
to credit "that idle tale" that she begrudged a traveler shelter.
Calling herself the Lady of Eguchi. she fades from sight.
In the INTERLUDE the Man of the Place returns
and tells another legend of the Lady of Eguchi
as an incarnation of Fugen Bosatsu who appeared
as a courtesan making merry on a pleasure boat
on the river.
Deeply impressed, the monk recites sutras for her spirit ;
and, lo ! he too sees a captivating "lady of pleasure" (NOCHI
SHITE) in a barge with her attendants. They sing of the sad
state of a harlot's way of life, as she dances.
— 20
She performs another dance, then sings of "man's vain
attachment to his temporary lodging " as she continues dancing;
at last revealing herself as Fugen. (stamping repeatedly)
ascending on "a milk-white elephant borne on fleecy clouds."
NOTES
1. Literary and classical references
a. The courtesan of Eguchi is mentioned in connection with
the hermit-poet Saigyo (in Saigyo's SENJL'SHO).
b. The reference to a courtesan of Kanzaki as Fugen (a female
BOSATSU pictorically represented as riding on a celestial
white elephant) is in the JIKKINSHO.
c. The poet complained : Even for one night, you begrude me
your temporary lodging.
d. The courtesan answered : As a monk, you ought to tal<e no
thought for a tempDrory lodging.
2. Masks
SHITE : Zo
NOCHI TSURE : tsure mask
3. Dances
KUSE
Jo no Mai
KIRI
4. TSUKURIMONO
A framework representing the roofed boat. (Sec FUNA BENKEI,
NOTE 3, p. 25)
5. For other Noh buih around a single literary allusion, see
TADANORI, p. 66 ; and TOBOKU, p. 71.
A similar Noh :
MUROGIMI. Courtesans sing and dance in boats for a'^shrine festival
at Muro, joined by the reincarnated Indian goddess" Idaike.
21 —
FUJITO
BACKGROUND
FUJITO is one of many Noh based on the Genji-Heike Wars.
When Heike ships arrived at Kojima Island, the Genji in turn moved
their army to Fujito on the other side of the strait. But lacking
ships, the Genji could not cross the strait to attack. At last Moritsuna
Sasaki, a Genji warrior, induced a fisherman to show him a way
through the channel on foot which only a few of the fishermen
there knew, because it was so changeable according to the tide.
When Moritsuna learned it, he killed the fisherman to keep the
information to himself, and sank his body in the sea. Moritsuna led
his army by that ford to the island, for a Genji victory. He was
therefore awarded the island of Kojima and has now come to take
possession of it.
NOH
When Moritsuna Sasaki (WAKI) arrives at Fujito with his
attendants (WAKI TSURE) he issues a proclamation that any-
body who has any complaint may present it to the lord. When
an old woman (SHITE) comes weeping. Moritsuna asks her
the cause. She accuses him of having killed her son for no
reason. At first he pretends bewilderment but, moved by her
sorrow, he admits all, even telling where he sank her son's
body. Despairing over the hopeless prospect of life without
her son, she demands that Moritsima give her the same fate as
her son. But instead he tells one of his attendants to take
her home ; and announces that he is going to hold a religious
service for the repose of the fisherman's soul, and give assist-
ance to the bereaved family.
In the INTERLUDE the attendant (KYoGEN)
reports that he saw her to her home ; and Moritsuna
tells him to arrange for the religious service with
music, and also to announce there should be no
fishing for seven days, as an expression of his
intention.
— 22
While Moritsuna offers prayers the slain fisherman (NOCHI
SHITE) appears, and they sing alternately ;
Alas, it is more painful to try to forget than to try to hold in memory.
Of course human life is uncertain. Punishment for o crime cannot be
helped, but I was killed in innocence. Considering it now, M put
my own head in the noose' when I showed him the shallow place in
the sea.
-How peculiar ! At almost dawn there is a strange figure walking
on the water. Might it be his ghost?
1 cm grateful for the prayers, but I have come to talk oway my
resentment which fetters my soul in everlasting attachment to this
world.
-Come you over the night sea to this shore with an unforgetttng
grudge to reproach me ?
You told me to show you my crossing place ; and I showed you the
ford.
-i crossed as you showed me
You received fame and also -
-For from ancient times till now, to cross the sea on horse is
An unheard of feat
-So I hove been awarded this island
The fortune came because of me
-How very grateful !
You should be !
Chorus (for fisherman): Beyond reason, you took my life; that is
more unusual than riding a horse through the sea. I cannot forget.
You took me to the rock over there ; stabbed me in the chest with
an icy sword. Being stabbed my life was ebbing away, then I was
pushed down in the sea, sinking into the fathomless dork.
Fisherman : The tide was at ebb-flow.
Chorus : In the undertow of the ebbing tide the waves rising and receding
washed round the body caught in a rift between the rocks. He determined
in his terror to turn into a monstrous underwater demon of Fujito to wreak
vengeance. But now by your unexpected prayers, led by Buddha's hand,
he comes easily to Nirvana as he wished.
NOTES
1. Masks
SHITE : Kanaiva Onna or Shakumi
NOCHI SHITE: Hatachiamari or Yaie Oloko
2. Costume
NOCHI SHITE: Conventional fisherman's garb
23
FUNA BENKEI
BACKGROUND
Voritomo, who established the Bakufu Shogunate at Kamakura,
became suspicious and jealous of his younger half-brother Voshitsune
whose military exploits against the Heike had won him an honored
place at the Imperial Court. After several unsuccessful attempts on
his life (see SHOZON p. 88). Yoshitsune decided it would be prudent
to leave Kyoto for Kyushu where he could await events in safety.
As the Noh opens he is going to embark at Daimotsu Bay (Osaka),
accompanied by his personal retainers and his faithful mistress
Shizuka, a dancer noted for her beauty and art. whose vigilance and
courage had saved him from one of the attacks upon his life.
NOH
Yoshitsune (KOKATA) and his retainers (WAKI TSURE),
led by Benkei (WAKI). enter. Benkei identifies himself and
explains the reason for their hasty departure. They sing, and
arrive at Daimotsu Bay.
Benkei secures lodging of a boatman (KYOGEN) ; then urges
Yoshitsune to send Shizuka (SHITE) back. He agrees, and
Benkei goes to tell her. (Shizuka appears, going to Yoshitsiaic.)
Benkei announces her, and Yoshitsune tells her to return
to the Capital. She reluctantly agrees {zveeping) reciting a poem :
More than this sorrow at parting —
For the hope of meeting again
I shall live, to see my lord's return.
At Yoshitsune's command Benkei serves sake to Shizuka.
Benkei bids Shizuka sing a farewell song, and dance. After
Shizuka sings, Benkei hands her a ceremonial hat (eboshi), and
she dances a few steps, singing :
Though I have no heart for dancing. . .
She performs several dances, singing of an incident in ancient
Chinese history, quoting Lao-tse: "When one has reached
fame and attained success one should retire," as a hope that
his brother's heart will soon be inclined toward him again.
She sings a sorrowful song of parting.
Yoshitsune and Shizuka bid sad farewell.
Benkei and the boatman prepare to depart, despite Yoshi-
tsune's misgivings. They all board and are rowed out to sea.
There is a humorous touch as the boatman asks a boon :
" When your master returns in pov/er to the Capital, might I hope to be
appointed director of shipping for the v/estern seas?" Benl<ei promises it
shall be so, but the boatman odds : " When one's lord is in danger, it's
easy to promise anything, then afterwards forget — I hope you won't."
The sea grows tempestuous, and towering waves lash the
boat ; the boatman shouts and beats with his oar, explaining :
You may think me noisy, but waves ore obedient — if we scold them
they calm down.
Suddenly Benkei sees the hosts of the defeated Heike chiefs
rising on the horizon ; then one of them, Tomomori (NOCHI
SHITE), draws near and, after several feints, attacks. Yoshi-
tsune draws his sword " challenging him — as if he were
human." Benkei prevents this futility, and instead rubs the
beads of his rosary, invoking the five incarnations of Buddha.
From the east... the south... the west...
From the north... and in the center, calling on the Great King
The avenging phantom is put to flight by Benkei 's prayers.
Carried away
on the receding tide —
Nothing left
but the white-capped waves.
NOTES
1. Masks and Headdress
SHITE : Magojiro
NOCHI SHITE : Ayakashi, with flowing black wig and
golden horns
2. Dances
Iroe
KUSE
Chit no Mai
Alaibataraki (the vigorous dance of the NOCHI SHITE)
24 —
TSUKURIMONO
The use of a mere framework to represent a boat, not large
enough to hold even the accompanying retainers (not to mention
the 8 or 10 more who are supposedly present — but not repre-
sented on the stage) is a typical example of the abstract
representations used as stage properties for Nob.
For tise of KOKATA, see ATAKA. NOTE 5, p. 13.
Other Noh on Yoshitsune in flight:
SETTAI. Yoshitsune and his party fleeing in disguise are given
hospitality (settai) by the widowed mother and the son of the
loyal warrior Tsuginobu who sacrificed himself to save Yoshitsune at
the battle of YASHIMA (p. 76).
TADANOBU. Tadanobu, brave warrior, brother of Tsuginobu (.sec SETTAI
above) fights a daring one man rearguard action as Yoshitsune and the
others escape from a tight spot at Mt. Yoshino.
In YOSHINO SHIZUKA, Shizuka helps Tadanobu delay the pursuers.
FUTARI SHIZUKA. Shizuka 's spirit takes possession of a woman gather-
ing herbs for a priest, then appears herself and they perform a dance.
25 —
HACHI NO Kl
BACKGROUND
Tokiyori, retired regent in the Kamakura Bakufu, traveled about
incognito as a priest to see the real state of the country. In this
Noh. he is shown hospitality by Tsuneyo, a former lord unjustly
dispossessed and reduced to abject poverty, but still possessed of the
fiercest feudal loyalty.
NOH
Tokiyori (WAKI), in the guise of a priest, arrives at Sano
during a severe snowstorm and asks a night's lodging of
Tsuneyo *s wife (TSURE). She cannot take him in as her
husband is away, so he stands outside to await his return.
Tsuneyo (SHITE) returns, singing of the snow :
Like scattered goose feathers
Foiling to the ground
The snow blows round ;
People abojt ore clothed
With a snowy gown
As of a white crone's down. (NOTE 1, a)
The priest is refused lodging, on the plea that they have
scarce room for the two of them; so he plods on. But then
the old couple decide they must somehow give him shelter
from the storm, so he is called back.
As they have nothing else to set before him, they serve
coarse peasants' millet, with poetic reference to Rosei's millet
at Kantaji. (Note 1, b) To build a fire to warm the guest,
Tsuneyo must needs chop up his three treasured potted trees
{hachi no ki) — a cherry, a plum, and a pine; singing:
Brushing off the snow the tree's beauty
Shows forth. How con I do this thing? Shall I
Now first cut down this plum? — that's the first one
To bloom among the deadened gloom of winter.
Although the plum tree at the north window
Blooms late by reason of the snow.
I pitied the man who couldn't see
Beauty in a flowering plum tree (NOTE 1. c)
Must it be made into firewood by me ?
I've been concerned about this cherry tree
When its spring blossoms seemed to be delayed ;
Carefully have I cared for it. But now
To such depths of poverty have I sunk
I chop this nurtured cherry tree in grief
To moke it blossom red in flame.
And now the pine !
Binding and clipping its branches
I made a graceful form ;
Yet all the care I exercised
Is blown away in a storm.
Now here's a fire I've mode ;
Come closer and be warm.
At the priest's insistence, he then identifies himself as the
dispossessed Lord of Sano and tells the story of the usurping
of his possessions by a relative. But he still has his halberd
and armor, and an old horse, that if at any time Kamakura be
in peril :
I'd gird on my armor
Tho' it be tattered,
Take up my ha!berd
Now rusty and battered,
True, my steed is so lank
Yet I'd ride with the first rank
To write my name ot the top of the roll.
When the fighting began.
Though many the foes,
I'd cleave their mossed ranks
Exchanging blows
With on adversary
Who would not be wary
Of dying in battle ! my own life-goal.
But alas my fate !
It can never be done ;
Worn out with hunger
I'll die unsung.
— 26
The priest then suddenly takes leave of them, going on his way.
In the INTERLUDE, some months later a herald
(KYoGEN) announces the order for a general alarm
which Tokiyori issued upon his return to Kamakura
a few days previously, calling on all the feudal
nobility to report there at once under arms.
Tsuneyo rushes off to Kamakura with the others, but his
old horse falls behind "" like a coach on wobbly wheels."
Tokiyori, sitting again in the Seat of Authority, orders an
attendant to bring the most unsightly soldier among the
assembled warriors, and he quickly picks out Tsuneyo.
Tokiyori gives Tsuneyo formal commendation for proving
his words that he would answer a call to arms, even in his
poor condition; and restores him to his rightful estate. He
grants him, in addition, three fiefs as memorials for the three
trees, his treasure, which he cut down
great snowstorm. (Note 2)
Holding aloft the deeds to his lands,
joyfully to Sano.
NOTES
1. Literary references
a. A poem by the Chinese poet Po Chu-i
b. See KANTAN, p. 36.
c. From a poem by Michizane. (Cf. RAIDEN, p. 86)
2. The three fiefs given for his three trees — plum, cherry, and
pine : Umeda — Plumfield (in Kaga) ; Sakurai— Cherrywell (in
EtchCi) ; and Matsueda — Pinebranch, or Matsuida — Pinewell Field,
(in Kozuke).
3. HIGH POINT of the Noh : as he prepares to cut the trees.
4. Special features of this Noh :
No mask for SHITE
No apparition, or strange creature
No dream, or dream-like qualities— all earthy and natural.
Another Noh about Tokiyori:
In TOEI Tokiyori, traveling incognito through Ashiya in western Japan,
restores lands usurped by Toei from his nephew, and reconciles them.
for firewood in the
Tsunevo rides back
27 —
HAeOROMO
BACKGROUND
The story of a celestial creature who lost her robe (hagoromo)
and was therefore unable to return has many variations in the
folklore of many countries. In one version in Japanese folklore, for
example, the heavenly being is obliged to become the wife of the mortal
who stole her cloak, and it is not until many years later that she
is able to regain possession of it by persuading their child to tell
where the father has hidden it ; whereupon she ascends by it
immediately into the heavens.
In the Noh the story is but a vehicle by which to introduce many
classical literary allusions and traditional dance forms.
NOH
A fisherman and his fellows (WAKI and W.\KI TSURE)
arrive at Matsubara on Mio Beach, singing of the scenery,
when suddenly :
There is music in the sky,
A shower of flower petals —
A divine fragrance waft all round.
The fisherman finds a beautiful cloak hanging upon a pine
tree. As he is about to take it home for a family treasure, a
heavenly maiden (SHITE) calls to him, claiming the cloak.
Learning that it is the robe of a heavenly being the fisherman
stoutly refuses to return it, saying it shall be a national treasure.
The heavenly maiden piteously bemoans in song the loss of
her only means of returning : {gazing uptcard)
1 look OS it were on the fislds of Heaven !
But the misty sky-way is hidden;
Alas, the path is lost.
As she and the chorus alternately express her deep despair
{making the coynentional Xoh gesture ofv:eeping), she dances.
The fisherman is so moved by her plight that he agrees to
return her robe if she performs the dances of heaven. She
agrees but insists he must first return her robe in order for
her to dance. He demures, lest she fly away without dancing,
but she chides :
To doubt is human ;
Heaven has no deceit.
This so shames him that he hands over the robe and she
performs several dances, finally ascending :
Over Mt. Ashitoka, and lofty Fuji,
Faintly visible among the clouds,
Then lost to human sight.
NOTES
1. Dances
KUSE
Jo no Mai
Ha no Mai (often omitted)
KIRI
2. Mask
SHITE : Xakizo
3. There are innumerable variations in the dance sequences.
— 28
HANAGATAMI
BACKGROUND
This Noh is based on the popular theme of a distraught woman
searching aimlessly for her lover in a crazed frenzy. (Cf. HANJO, p. 80)
NOH
When an Imperial prince who has been living in the provinces
is suddenly called to the throne, he sends to the lady who has
been his lover a flower basket (Iiaucigatami) and a letter
of farewell. The messanger (WAKI TSURE) delivers them to
the lady (SHITE) as he meets her on the road to her home.
Reading the letter, she sings her grief (iceepiiig) and returns
home disconsolately.
Later, crazed by her grief, she makes her way with her maid
(TSURE) to the Capital, {canying the basket) arriving as the
Emperor is going out to view the autumn maple.
A courtier (WAKI), clearing the way for the Imperial party,
jostles them roughly out of the way, knocking the basket to the
ground. She remonstrates vehemently, singing and doing a
frenzied dance. The courtier orders her to come forward and
perform her mad dance for the Emperor's diversion. She does
so, dancing a story from ancient China about heartbroken grief.
The Emperor (KOKATA) recognizes the basket. Telling her
to forget the horrid letter that was with it and return to
sanity, he takes her back with him to the Palace.
NOTES
1. Masks
SHITE: Zo
TSURE : tsure mask
2. Dances
KURUl
Iroe
KUSE
29
HASHITOMI
BACKGROUND
This Noh is one of many based on an incident in the classic GENJI
MONOGATARI.
One night Prince Genji took a girl named Yiigao to a deserted
house with amorous intentions but she was attacked there by the
spirit of his jealous mistress Rokujo (NOTE 2) and died that night.
NOH
A priest (WAKI) of the temiile of I'lirin In is jjerforming a
Buddhist service for flowers, when a maiden (SHITE) comes to
offer a yugao blossom.
Priest : What kind of flower have you offered ? If is so unusually
white and beautiful !
Maiden : A needless question ! This flower blooms in the evening so
you should be able to tell its name. But it grows along the fence-
rows of common people's houses so it is natural you do not know.
It is YUGAO (Evening Glory).
Priest : Ah, yes — and who then might you be ?
Maiden : That should obviously be clear - coming from this flower.
Priest : Then you must be coming forth from the other world to this
flower service. But pray tell me clearly who you are.
Maiden : I had a name though it is old and dead...
Priest; There is a story like that at a certain temple...
Maiden: My usual abode is there- --
Chorus ; In truth, it is YUGAO.
And saying that she disappears behind the flowers to which
he is performing the religious service.
In the INTERLUDE, a stranger (KYOGEN) coming
to see the flowers' service relates the story of
Prince Genji and Lady Yugao, concluding that the
girl who appeared may be the spirit of the yugao
flower or the ghost of Lady Yugao. He suggests
the priest go to the temple in Gojo, where she lived.
At Gojo the priest finds the old mansion as dilapidated as
that night Prince Genji made love to Yugao there.
30
The maiden (NOCHI SHITE), present in her true form as
Yugao, (siting in the bamboo fnunezvork hung xvith yugao
blossoms and gourds) sings a description of the old tumbled-
down house, and quotes a short, sad poem of heartbreak :
The moon, drawn wiily-nllly to the mountain.
Not fully comprehending his true intent
To be cast aside and fade away in the si<y. (NOTE 1)
She asks for prayers, which the priest readily promises.
Then lifting the door she comes slowly forth, looking so
pitiable the priest can not but weep.
As she dances. Prince Genji's liaison with Yugao is retold:
One evening Genji found this house and ordered Koremitsu, his servant,
to get a YUGAO blossom and I sent the flower on a pure white fan,
deeply perfumed. ... At that time, when he asked about the flower,
if I had not answered we might have passed on without ever knowing
each other.
She then performs a dance followed by more song, ending ;
I have revealed my identity. Please pray.,, pray forme. It's almost
dawn. I must go before the sun comes up.
So saying she returns again into the house ; and it has all
been but his dream.
NOTES
1. Literary reference
YOgao's poem in GENJI MONOGATARI
2. See AOI NO UE, p. 10.
3. Mask
SHITE : Zo
4. Dances
KUSE
Jo no Mai
KIR I
5. TSUKURIMONO
Bamboo framework hung with gourds. {See FUNA BENKEI,
NOTE 3, p. 25)
Other Noh about Genji:
YUGAO. The same story (see HASHITOMI above) but follows more
closely the original narrative in GENJI MONOGATARI.
SUMA GENJI. The spirit of Prince Genji appears to a priest on a
pilgrimage to Ise Shrine, first as an old man, and recounts his days
in exile at Suma Beach.
SUMIYOSHI MODE. At the Sumiyoshi Shrine Prince Genji by chance
meets Lady Akashi, who was his solace during his exile at Suma.
OCHIBA. A woman tells a priest the story of Princess Ochiba's love
for Prince Genji's son Yugiri, afterwards appearing as the princess.
31
IZUTSU
BACKGKOLNL)
Narihira. known no less for his gallantry than for his poetry, is a
legendary figure, but in this Noh the legend is modified : As children,
he and a little neighbor girl used to lean over the wooden curb of a
well (Iziitsu means 'well-curb') and peer down at their own faces.
When they grew u? they married but were not happy for long; the
sophisticated, fickle Narihira began to pay nightly visits to another
woman. But his wife's unselfish devotion drew him back to her, and
they lived happliy thereafter.
NOH
A traveling priest (WAKI) visits the temple built on the site
of their house. An old wooden well-curb amongst siisiiki
grass recalls their famous love story. A maiden (SHITE)
comes to draw water, pourmg it into a small wooden bucket
containing flowers, and offering it reverently before a nearby
mound, which she informs the priest is Narihira's grave.
She then obliges the priest by telling the love story of
Narihira and Ki no Aritsune's daughter— of the two children
in innocence at the well-curb, quoting the poems (Note 1)
which later trothed their love. From this exchange of poems
she was called the Lady of Izutsu.
So filled with wonder is he at her charm in the telling of
this tale that he begs to know her name ; she softly confesses
to be the ' Daughter of Ki no Aritsune " and ' Lady of Izutsu,'
scarcely after fading away behind the well-curb there.
In the INTERLUDE, a Man of the Place
(KYOGEN) repeats the story to the priest.
The spirit (NOCHI SHITE) returns and performs a dance
expressing the sharp melancholy of her longing, dressed in the
princely robe and headgear of her beloved, so that when she
looks into the well in her intense yearning she sees Narihira's
32
image in place of her own, reflected in its still water. But
dawn breaks — and nothing remains with the priest but the
reality of day.
NOTES
1. THEIR POEMS (In the ISE MONOGATARI)
He wrote ;
Beside the well-curb we compared our height ;
I've grown up much in the interval.
She answered ;
The hair I parted when we stood
Comparing our height beside the well-curb
Hangs loosely dov^n ; by whom should
It be tied up but you ?
(It was the husband's place to tie up his bride's hair.)
2. Mask
SHITE: Zo
3. Costume
NOCHI SHITE: Ceremonial \\a\. {KAMVRl), and dancing
robe (C Ho KEN)
4. Dance
Jo no Mai
5. TSUKURIMONO
Wooden well-curb, with a tuft of sustiki grass.
Other Noh of Narihira:
KAKITSUBATA. A traveling priest stopping to view the blooming
KAKITSUBATA (iris) at Yatsuhashi meets a young woman, who
explains that these flowers are specially famous — from Narihira's ISE
MONOGATARI in which he made an acrostic poem from the word
KAKITSUBATA, then invites him to lodge that night at her house,
where she dresses :n a stunning robe and headpiece, both of which
are remembrances, the robe being mentioned in the poem and the
headpiece being Narihira's; finally revealing in song and dance that
she is the spirit of the KAKITSUBATA, saved by Narihira's poem
for he was a BOSATSU incarnation.
UNRIN IN. In obedience to a dream, a man who has always loved
the ISE MONOGATARI visits the Unrin In in Kyoto and meets a
woman with whom he talks about the blooming cherry there; Narihira
himself later appears and dances.
OSHIO. A party viewing cherry blossoms at Ohara meet an old man
who recites poetry Narihira wrot? about Ohara and Oshio ; then
Narihira's spirit appears and dances.
33 —
KA0EKIYO
BACKGKOtND
KAGEKIYO is one of the numerous Noh about a warrior of the
defeated Heike Clan. Though he was a real person, this episode has
no known historical basis. Nor can the daughter here portrayed be
identified with certainty.
NOH
Kagekiyo's daughter (TSURE) journeys with an attendant to
the province of Hyuga where he is in exile, to meet the father
she has never known, singing :
The gentle breeze whispsred that he lives still —
The whispering breezes said he is still alive
But, oh, life is so like dew could he be?
Kagekiyo (SHITE)— old, blind and destitute— unwilling for
her to see his wretchedness, sends her away from his hut
without revealing himself. But when a villager (WAKI) brings
the daughter back he admits his identity, and agrees to tell
his exploits at the Battle of Yashima (Note 1), on condition
that she go as soon as it is finished:
34 —
We of the Heike were in our ships,
The Genji armies spread 'long the shore;
Each eager to bid for mastery
Through force of arms in battle sore.
Then thought Kogekiyo in his heart,
" Yoshitsune is after all
No god or demon an easy mark
For one who loves not his own life dearly !"
" It is I, Kogekiyo," he cried
"The Guick-Tempered, a Captain of Heike men!"
Swiftly pursuing, with bare hand grasping
The helmet which his er.emy wore.
He clutched at the neck-piece, then clutched again ;
But it slid from him slipped through his fingers.
TIM the reck-plece cracked and tore off in his hand,
While the other, breaking free, ran a good way off.
Then turning, he shouted, "O mighty Kogekiyo,
How terrible is the strength of your grip !"
Kogekiyo called back to him,
"Nay, rather, how strong your neck is!"
When the story concludes she leaves.
"I stay," he said; and she answered, "I go."
This word was all he kept of hers.
Nor exchanged they more remembrances.
NOTES
1. See YASHIMA, p. 76.
2. Masks
SHITE : Kagekiyo
TSURE : tsure mask
3. TSUKURIMONO
A bamboo framework representing Kagekiyo's hut.
4. A high point in this Noh is the portrayal, by the SHITE —
immediately after he comes out of the hut — of various and
conflicting emotions ; i. e., anger, shame, hopelessness, etc.
Another is the sad scene of the daughter's departure, at the end.
Another Noh about Kagekiyo:
DAI3UTSU KUYO. Kagekiyo. disguised as a temple sweeper, attempts to
attack his enemy Yoritomo during the re-dedication ceremony of the
great Buddha (DAIBUTSU) at Nara but is discovered and flees.
35
KANT AN
BACKGROUND
Kosei. a pious youth seeking "enlightenment" but loath to break
"attachments to this life," comes to the village of Kantan (in ancient
China), journeying to consult a great sage. At Kantan he finds what
he sought and returns home satisfied.
NOH
An innkeeper (KYOGEN) explains that her " Pillow of
Kantan," which was given to her by a holy man who passed
there on a journey, has the power to enlighten one who sleeps
on it by revealing past and future in a dream.
Rosei (SHITE) arrives at the inn.
Learning the purpose of his journey, she suggests he sleep
upon the headrest, and orders a meal of millet for him.
ROSEI'S DREAM:
An envoy (WAKI) tells Rosei he has been chosen emperor, and takes
him to the Palace i NOTE 1 , a i in a jewelled palanquin.
A flowery description of its magnificent splendor is then sung.
A Court Minister announces a party celebrating the fiftieth year of his
reign. They drink "the wine of chrysanthemum dew." (NOTE 1, b)
Then the Court Dancer ( KOKATA ) performs, as they sing.
Rosei does a classical Court Dance, followed by more song and dance.
The innkeeper calls him; his millet meal is cooked.
Rosei awakes, bewildered; bereft of fifty years" glory:
' Twos but the sighing pines that made the voice
Of multitudes of queens and waiting-ladies;
The palaces of splendor nought but this inn.
His glory was for fifty years — his dream
But time to cook the millet. O mystery I
Even a hundred years with pleasure filled
Are but a dream
At Death.
Gratefully enlightened by the Pillow of Kantan he turns
homeward.
NOTES
1. Classical references
a. Palace on the River Wei, of the First Emperor of Ch'in, builder
of the Great Wall of China.
b. "Wine of chrysanthemum dew" a legendary elixir of longevity.
(See MAKURA JIDO, p. 83)
2. Mask
SHITE: Kantan Oloko
3. Dances
Cliu no Mai (by KOKATA)
Gaku (Court Dance)
4. TSUKURIMONO
Dias with bamboo frame and roof, used to represent:
1) A bed chamber of the inn at Kantan
2) The Throne Room of the Palace, in his dream
3) Again, his bed at the inn
36
37 —
KAYOl KOMACHl
BACKGROUND
Ono no Komachi. famous beauty of the Ileian Period (see SOSHI
ARM, p. 63) had a most persistent suitor, Fukakusa no ShCsho, to
whom she made a coquettish promise— if he would come to her house
for one hundred nights. He fulfilled the task by all but one— on
which night, alas, he died !
NOH
A priest (WAKI) in religious training at Yase wonders about
a wom£in coming daily with offerings of fruit and firewood.
The woman (TSURE) comes, commiserating on her poor
appear£ince, and when she arrives tells what she has brought.
The priest asks about her.
My name is Ono no... No, I can't say it an old woman of Ichiharano,
where SUSUKI grass grows...
Begging for prayers, she disappears.
The priest muses: "It's very strange — when I asked her
name she disappeared, quoting ;
The autumn wind blows unmercifully
Where SUSUKI gross grows ;
Nothing remains of Komochi's beauty.
" It is Ono no Komachi's poem. Then it must have been
her. I will go to Ichiharano to offer prayers for her soul."
The priest comes to the place and prays.
Komachi reappears and thanks him for the prayers, begging
for release.
A man (SHITE) rushes in threatening the priest not to do so.
She complains that he wants her to suffer. The man retorts:
"I was in grief even with the two of us together; now if she
leaves me alone it will be intolerable, and I must end up in
hell, so then she must too. There's no need to be religious.
You priest go away."
The priest pleads with him to receive Buddha's mercy, which
he refuses. Komachi insists on being freed from Shosho, but
he swears that he will never let her go, and both weep. The
priest, realizing that the man is Fukakusa no Shosho, asks him
to describe the one hundred nights.
As Komachi told him that she would meet him on the one
hundredth night, he .came night after night. She told him to
be inconspicuous, so he went on foot, while she expected him
to give up some day.
Disguised as a commoner
In the moonlight
it wasn't dark
In the snow
shaking snow ofF his sleeves
On the rainy night
in fear of a demon's attack
Unclouded night
I was always in tears never had a clear day
(Pcrfi/niis ci dance)
Truly the evenings moke one's heart wonder.
In the evenings you must have waited for
the moon in the sky, but not for me.
At dawn things creep into one's mind.
It isn't for me but for herself, birds should sing,
bells ring, morning light should come, because
it is better to be alone.
Thus wearing himself out he counted the ninety-ninth night.
Then in happiness he arrayed himself in his best apparel and
started on his way. thinking Komachi would be waiting for him.
If it is the command not to drink I would not, even if it be served
in the most exquisite cup.
Thus his steadfast will led him to Nirvana.
Forgiven their many sins, Ono no Komachi and Shosho both
attain release.
38 —
NOTES
1. Dances
Iroe
KIR I
2. Masks
SHITE:
Yase Otoko
TSURE :
tsure mask
Other Noh of Komachi's old age:
SOTOBA KOMACHI. Koraachi as a hundred-year-old beggar sits down
ID rest upon a stupa marker and is reprimanded by priests from Mt.
I~Cr>ya (seat of the strict mystic Shingon Sect) for sacriHge but in
disputation she proves more than a match for them with her Zen
sophism, composing a WAKA (31 syllable poem) justifying her sitting
on the stupa (soloba), since what is forbidden in heaven may be all
right outside (soto xva), making a neat play on words ; then she reveals
her identity, soon thereafter becoming possessed of the distraught
spirit of her persistent suitor Shosho, portraying the same story as in
the Noh above.
OMU KOMACHI. A Noh about a letter Komachi received from the
Emperor, in the form of a WAKA which she answered by returning
the same poem (omu means 'parrot') with just one syllable changed.
SEKIDERA KOMACHI. Some priests and a child sit at the feet of an
old woman, Ono no Komachi, who teaches them of poetry, quoting
her own poems and reminiscing on her former splendor ; then ac-
companies them to their temple, Seki Dera, where she and the child
perform dances.
Other old-woman Noh :
HIGAKI. A priest meets a very aged woman daily bringing water who
turns out to be the great dancer of long ago who composed a famous
poem for Fujiwara no Okinori when she gave him a drink of water.
OBASUTE : An exceedingly beautiful presentation of the legend about
an old woman left to die on the mountain.
{The subject is treated extensively by modern story-writers and movies,
as well as by HAIKU and other forms of literature.)
39
KAZURAKl
Three yanuibtishi (Note 1) priests (WAKI and WAKI TSURE)
come to Mt. Kazuraki atid are given shelter from the snow by
a woman (SHITE) who, after building a fire for them, asks for
prayers. When the priest asks why, she reveals that she is
the mountain's diety. and is suffering punishment for having
failed to carry out an order to construct a stone bridge for
Gyoja, a famous traveling priest.
In the INTERLUDE a Man of the Place (KYOGEN) meets the
priests, who ask him about the stone bridge on Mt. Kazuraki.
He relates the story : This mountain is so rugged that it is
almost impossible to climb. But since En no Gyoja climbed it
priests have been going there. This Gyoja, from Yamato, lived
here for thirty years during Emperor Mombu's reign and had
complete mastery over the gods. Then he thought it was so far
from Kazuraki to Omine going around mountains and through
valleys that there should be a stone bridge, which he ordered the
goddess of Kazuraki to make. The goddess worked only at night
because she was so ashamed of her ugliness, so she couldn't
complete it to his satisfaction. In anger he bound her with a
vine. The goddess retaliated by denouncing him to an Imperial
Court official who tried to catch him but, unable to do so as
Gyoja could traverse heaven and the earth freely, caught Gyoja's
mother instead. Then Gyoja came to take his mother's place
and was exiled to an island. After that Gyoja transported his
mother out of the country in a pot. But he still came to the
mountains Kazuraki, Omine and Fuji, and the goddess suffers.
The goddess (NOCHI SHITE) reappears in her true form and
performs a dance in gratitude for being saved by their prayers
from further punishment.
NOTES
1. See ATAKA, NOTE 4. p. 13.
2. Masks
SHITE : Shahani
NOCHI SHITE: Nakizo
3. Dances
KUSE
Jo no Mai
KIR I
— 40
KINUTA
BACKGROUND
KINUTA is centered poetically upon the common household chore
of women in olden days of beating cloth with a mallet on a wooden
block {kinuta) to soften it. The sensibility of the sound of the
beating is interwoven with the nuance of the poetry to express the
wistful waiting of a wife for her husband long in coming home.
NOH
The Lord of Ashiya (WAKI), away at the Capital for three
years while his wife waits yearningly at home (in Kyushu),
sends their maid (TSURE) to say that he will be back at the
end of the year.
The wife (SHITE) complains bitterly to the maid of the
husband's extended absence ; then in the autumn evening air
they hear the sound of beating cloth and get out the wooden
block to beat cloth together. This recalls to the wife a Chinese
story (Note 1) and she dares hope the sound of their beating
may reach her husband and bring him back quickly.
But alas 1 it is not to be so : a messenger arrives with the
news that her husband can not after all come back at the year's
end as he had promised.
The poor wife, losing all faith in her husband, feels deceived
and so utterly neglected that she sinks into a melancholy illness
and passes away.
The shock of this brings the husband home at once, to hold
religious rites for the repose of her soul. He offers up the
wooden beating block and employs a medium for a birch-bow
seance (Cf. AOI NO UE, p. 10).
fier embittered spirit comes forth to rail upon him, giving
vent to her long-accumulated resentment and disillusionment :
Even in your dreams why did you not hear the sound of my mallet
beating on the cloth those lonely chilly nights? O, heartless mon I
But the chanting of the Lotus Sutra— so like to her the
sound of beating cloth— leads the way to her soul's eternal bliss.
41
NOTES
1. Literary reference
While a Chinese envoy to the barbarians was being held by
them for many years, he one autumn evening miraculously
heard the sound of his yearning wife thousands of miles away
boating cloth on the wooden block, and soon after was released
and returned home.
2. Masks
SHITE : Fukat
TSURE: isiire mask
NOCHI SHITE: Deigaii
3. Stoge Property
Wooden block on which cloth is beaten, and small mallet.
KIYOTSUNE
BACKGROUND
This Noh is built around an incident recorded in the HEIKE
MONOGATARI. When the Heike army, in disastrous flight from
the Genji, received an oracle from the local Hachiraan Shrine that
there was no further hope for their cause, one General Kiyotsune
eager to enter Nirvana, deciding to throw himself immediately upon
the mercy of Amioa Buddha and thus insure his future bliss, one night
leaped from his boat into the sea and drowned. A lock of his hair
was found in the boat, for a keepsake to his wife at the Capital.
Other Noh on a similar theme:
AISOMEGAWA. A woman comes with her child to her former hus-
band but by the jealousy of the present wife is led to drown herself,
the child being prevented from following her, and she herself being
brought back to life through the husband's prayers.
TORI Ol. A landowner returning to his home in Kyushu after ten
years in the Capital on a lawsuit finds his wife and son being made
to work scaring away (oi) birds (tori) and flies into a murderous rage
but his wife forgivingly intercedes for pardon for the evil steward who
thus grossly mistreated them.
KAMO MONOGURUl. A man who has been away for three years
returns to the Capital on the day of the festival of the Kamo Shrine
and there finds his wife who became deranged from loneliness ; although
they finally recognize one another they go home separately to avoid
curious onlookers.
NOH
Kiyotsune's faithful retainer (WAKI) announces that he has
taken upon himself the task of bearing the tragic news, and
the keepsake, to Kiyotsune's wife (TSURE).
When he has delivered both he retires.
The wife is shocked -and embittered at the news and casts
the keepsake aside, going weeping to her lonely bed ;
tonging, praying that even in a dream he might come to her.
When Kiyotsune (SHITE) appears beside her pillow she knows
she must be dreaming but is thankful all the same for the sight
of him.
They quarrel, tauntingly reproaching each other in mutual
rancor, he for her spurning of the keepsake he had taken so much
care to leave for her, she for his casting away of his own life.
Kiyotsune relates the events leading up to his death :
{sitting on stool)
The Heike, in flight with the Imperial Court (NOTE 1), inquire at
the Uso Shrine of Hochimon and are granted on oracle from the god
which tells them to give up oil hope. Immediately they are forced
to embark again in flight before their advancing foes.
Kiyotsune {dancing) describes his death in a beautiful lyrical
passage of blended poetic sensibility and religious piety.
— 42
The wife responds :
I am dazed ; shaken by sobbing. Oh, tragic end to our wedded life !
Kiyotsune then describes his suffering in the Asura Hell
{dratving his sword and dancing zcitli il), a torment of
continuous combat ;
The trees ore enemies, raindrops as arrows.
Sharp swords strewn over the ground. The hills castles
Of iron, clouds of bottle-banners, surrounded by
Enemies blades and flashing eyes of hate.
All is strife.
The foe advance like waves.
Then like the tide retreat ;
All battles of the land
Are fought again without end.
' Til now at lost, these torments cease.
Buddha's name the dying Kiyotsune invokes ;
Kiyotsune, the Purified, enters Nirvana.
All praise be to Amldo !
NOTES
S
OHARA GOKO, p. 55
2. Masks
SHITE: Chujo
TSURE: tsure mask
3. Dances
KUSE (describing his death)
KIRI (with sword, expressing suffering of Hell)
4. This is a one-act Noh of unique structure, using almost no
stage properties, and the WAKI being on stage only briefly.
The effect is a high emotional tension throughout the play.
Similiar Noh:
TOMOAKIRA. The defeated Heike (Taira) warrior Tomoakira appears
to a priest praying at a stone inscribed to him at Suma Beach, first
in the form of a man to extol his father's military exploits, then as
himself to describe his own death in battle at Ichinotani.
MICHIMORI. A priest praying at Naruto for the souls of Heike (Taira)
warriors who died there meets the spirit of one of them, Michimori,
and his wife, who drowned herself upon news of his death.
43 —
KOKAJI
Kokaji (WAKI), a swordsmith in Kyoto during the Heian
Period, receives an order to make a sword for the Emperor,
but as he does not have a good assistant, he demurs. But
when the envoy (WAKI TSURE) from the Imperial Court
explains that the order is being given in compUance with
instructions received in a dream, Kokaji goes to the Fox Shrine
to seek divine aid. The diety appears in the form of a lad
(SHITE), who reassures him with a promise of assistance.
Following the INTERLUDE, the god (NOCHI SHITE) comes
and dances, then together they make a marvelous sword.
There follows a dance of praise.
NOTES
1. TSUKURIMONO
Dias representing the swordsmith foundry.
2. Masks
SHITE: Jido
NOCHI SHITE: Kolobide
3. Dances
yiaibataraki (showing his divinity)
KIRI (the concluding dance)
4. HIGH POINT: pounding out the sword
^
la
KOSODE SOeA
BACKGROUND
The story of the Soga Brothers' Revenge is a classic vendetta in
Japanese literature. Thousands of stories, plays, etc. have been
written on the theme— especially for Kabuki. Their father was killed
on a hunting party over a quarrel about land. (The traditional spot
in Izu -a small, deep hollow visible from the highway betv/een Ito
and Shimoda— is faithfully pointed out to tourists.) The mother put
the younger son in a temple, where he did not stay long.
NOH
The Soga brothers. Juro (SHITE) and Goro (TSURE), go
under arms to their mother's house with their servants.
Juro announces that Yoritomo is taking out a hunting party,
including their enemy, and he will join them with Goro ; so he
hopes their mother will be reconciled with Goro before they go.
Juro is welcomed by their mother (TSURE) while Goro waits
outside commiserating himself, {zveeping)
44
Juro returns to tell Goro that, as their mother is in a good
mood, he should go in ; but when he calls, his mother answers
that she has disowned him because he didn't become a priest
as she had willed, and closes the door against him. Juro is
told that if he even mentions Goro he will also be disowned;
(returns zveepi/ig) so he takes Goro in with him, complaining:
Everyone knows about their enemy, and as he doesn't feel able to
carry out their revenge against him alone she ought to scold Goro if
he wants to become a priest, leaving his older brother alone. Even
if he stayed in the temple to please her, people would say that it
was to hide from their enemy not for religious motives and his
fellow priests would despise him. To live unwillingly in shame would
be worse than being in secular life. He learned the Hokekyo at
the temple in Hakone and prayed for his parents every day. Such
a filial son has been disowned for three years ! Unable to meet his
mother, his longing has grown ever stronger. She should surely realize
their danger, even in these peaceful times, on such a hunting or fishing
expedition, remembering how their father was killed.
Then they leave weeping ; but she calls them back, forgiving
and giving them her blessing. The two brothers prostrate
themselves, weeping for joy ; then celebrate by drinking a
ceremonial cup of sake, {making the com<entional Noli gesture
of pott ring) and performing a joyful dance together.
NOTES
1. Mask
TSURE (Mother): Fukai
2. Dances
Otoko Mai (by two together, expressing their joy)
KIR I
3. This is a one-act Noh, and is unusual in having no WAKI.
Other Noh of the Soga brothers' revenge:
CHOBUKU SOGA. The younger of the two Soga brothers, seeing their
enemy at a shrine at Hakone and burning with revenge is restrained
from such rashness by his guardian, the governor of Hakone, who
instead gathers priests and places a figure of the enemy on the altar
to put curses upon him, whereupon the god Fudu My6-6 materializes
and attests that the revenge will be achieved.
GEMBUKU SOGA (an episode preceding their return home in KOSODE
SOGA). The older Soga brother Juro performs the coming-of-age
ceremony on the younger brother Hako-o (Goro), in preparation for
their setting out on their vendetta; after which the governor of
Hakone presents him with an heirloom sword.
YOUCHl SOGA. The Soga brothers attack their enemy at night, on
the Shfigun's hunting expedition (see KOSODE SOGA above), but the
younger Goro, searching about in the dark for his brother whom he
fears has been killed, is attacked by a large number of the Shogun's
men and tricked by one of them masquerading as a woman and led
away bound.
ZEt^tJI SOGA follows the YOUCHl SOGA episode, their younger brother
Zenji being taken captive before he can kill himself.
Other Noh of revenge :
DAt^PU. Another story of revenge, set on Sado Island during the
Kamakura Period.
MOCHIZUKl. Another story of revenge, by the victim's wife and son
with the assistance of his loyal retainer.
HOKA Z6. Two brothers, to avenge their father's death, disguise
themselves as Hrjka priest entertainers to come into the presence of
their enemy and slay him.
45
KURAMA TENGU
BACKGROUND
L'sliiwaka, wlio grt-w up to become the famous warrior Yoshitsune,
was the ninth son of Yoshitomo, head of the Genji (Minamoto)
family. He was spared, along with his older half-brother Yoritomo,
when his father was killed, and his family all but annihilated by the
Heike (Taira) victors. At the time of this Noh, Ushiwaka is at Mt.
Kurama with children of the Heike Clan.
NOH
A tengu (Note 4) disguised as a yamahushi priest (SHITE)
enters, announces that he is going to West Valley at Mt.
Kurama to view the cherry blossoms, and retires.
At East Valley a priest (WAKI) and his attendants (WAKI
TSURE) going blossom viewing with Ushiwaka and other children
(KOKATA) appear.
A servant (KYOGEN) from a temple of West Valley brings
a letter inviting them there, v^'here the cherry blossoms are
now at their best : so they go with him.
The priest calls the servant to entertain the children ; he does
so with song and dance. The ycuiui/uis/u' comes uninvited.
The servant would make him leave, but the priest decides they
will have their party tomorrow instead, and all except Ushiwaka
leave, the angry servant shaking his fist at the intruder.
The yi!»ui/>itshi grumbles :
I've heard that there is no discrimination in loving
flowers but these people of Kurama Temple, though they
have renounced worldliness and keep the image of the
merciful Buddha, know not such mercy.
Ushiwaka, sympathizing, kindly suggests they view the cherry
blossoms together. Asked why he remained behind, Ushiwaka
complains (zveeping) that the others, sons of Kiyomori Taira,
the Heike ruler then in power, are always well treated but he
is an outcast even for enjoying the moon or the flowers.
— 46
The yainahiishi laments that a Genji Hves thus :
You are like cherry blossoms for from a town — nobody
paying any attention to you -but after all other
blossoms ore gone, there will be your time...
On the quiet mountain the yainabuslii leads Ushiwaka through
all the noted flower-viewing places amid the gathering dusk.
When Ushiwaka asks the name of him who is so kind, the
tengu reveals his identity, suggesting they return on the morrow,
when he will reveal the secrets of military arts by which to
defeat the Heike, then flies away up the valley among the clouds.
In the INTERLUDE little tengu (KYOGEN) come
to test Ushiwaka ; but prove to be no match for him.
Little Ushiwaka boldly awaits the big toigii.
The teitgu (NOCHI SHITE) reappears, boasting his prowess;
then asks Ushiwaka, what he did to the little tengu he sent.
LIshiwaka wanted to show off by inflicting a few slight wounds,
but was afraid the teacher might scold him for that. The
tengu thanks him, then relates {iiiiining the action) an old
Chinese story about a famous military strategist. (Note 1)
He assures Ushiwaka: "You will surely overcome the
Heike;" then promising to act as his constant guardian and
protector, he bids farewell — though Ushiwaka {holding him by
the sleeve) tries to hold him longer--and flies off.
NOTES
1. Classical literary reference
The story is portrayed in CHO RYO (below).
2. Mask
NOCHI SHITE: Obeshum (TENGU mask)
3. Costumes
SHITE: Conventional costume of YAMABUSHI
NOCHI SHITE: Carrying the "Tengu fan" of feathers.
NOCHI KOKATA: White headband, carrying NAGINATA
4. TENGU: A fabulous flying creature of the mountains.
YAMABUSHI: See ATAKA, NOTE 4, p. 13.
5. For use of KOKATA (child actor) see ATAKA, NOTE 5, p. 13.
The Nob CHO RYO portrays this story: The general Cho Ryo, in
obedience to a dream, goes to learn the secrets of military arts from
a great master, who, in the guise of an old man, first tests his patience
by delays and affronts— Cho Ryo repeatedly picks up the boot which
he kicks off, finally being obliged to leap into a swift-flowing stream
and fearlessly attack a dragon-god to retrieve it.
SEKIHARA YOICHI. Leaving Mt. Kurama (see KURAMA TENGU above)
Ushiwaka gets into a fight with a party on the highway and rides
away on their horse.
Other Noh of TENGU:
MATSUYAMA TENGU. The po?t Saigyo offers up a poem at the tomb
of a former Emperor, who appears, and also many TENGU.
KURUMA Z6 and ZEGAl are Noh of malicious TENGU in the guise of
YAMABUSHI who contend with a priest and are overcome.
DAIE. In repayment of a past kindness by a priest a TENGU
magically brings up an image of Buddha preaching on Mt. Ryojusen
for hira, but is punished by a divine being for doing so.
47
KUROZUKA
BACKGROUND
Stories of a man-eating ogress are common in most folklore. This
Noh is from an old tale of a demon at Kurozuka in Adachigahara.
NOH
A priest (WAKI) and his attendants (WAKI TSURE) set out.
Arriving at Adachigahara, they are given sheUer for the
night in the house of a poor woman (SHITE). She works at
a spinning wheel, complaining that she is so poor that she has
to work even in her old age. The priest exhorts that however
busy her daily life, she can attain salvation if she believes in
righteousness; she replies that she knows life is only a moment's
dream but is unable to cut off her attachment to this world.
(^spinning as she sings)
Then she goes to collect wood in the forest to make a fire,
charging them not to look into her room. They promise and
thank her for her kindness.
In the INTERLUDE, while the others are sleeping,
the servant (KYOGEN), unable to restrain his
curiosity, looks into her room. Horrified, he tells
what he saw, and flees. Finding many skeletons
there, they- are convinced it is the notorious demon
of Kurozuka and rush from the house.
The woman reappears as a ferocious demon (NOCHI SHITE),
but is defeated by their prayers.
NOTES
1. Masks
SHITE : Kafiazva Onna or Shakumi
NOCHI SHITE: Hannya
2. Stage Properties
Spinning wheel and spindle.
3. For a similar theme treated in a simpler manner but more
striking setting, see MOMIJI GARI. p. 54.
48
KUZU
BACKGROUND
KUZU is a Noh of auspicious felicitation. Though action is simple,
and dramatic at only one point, it includes an important dance.
NOH
The Emperor Temniu (KOKATA), fleeing to Yoshino with
his followers (WAKI and WAKI TSURE) because of a revolt,
meets an old couple (SHITE and TSURE) who are fishing.
Asked for food, they offer fish and vegetables. After eating,
the Emperor returns a fish left over, which the old man frees
in the river {miming the action zvith fun) ; it returns to life —
as an omen of the Emperor's restoration. When soldiers
(KYOGEN) come pursuing the Emperor, the old man hides
him in his boat and by cunning and courage deflects them
from their purpose. Promising some entertainment for the
Emperor, the couple leave, to return as a god (NOCHI SHITE)
and goddess (NOCHI TSURE). who performs a dance for an
auspicious reign by the Emperor.
NOTES
1. Dance
Gaku (by NOCHI TSURE)
2. Masks
SHITE: Jo
TSURE : Uha
NOCHI SHITE: Olobide
NOCHI TSURE: Isure mask
3. TSUKURIMONO
Boat
4. The dramatic point occurs as the old man interposes himself
between the pursuing soldiers and the refugee Emperor.
5. For use of KOKATA (child actor) see ATA.KA, NOTE 5, p. 13.
HOJOGAWA. When a priest asks two men carrying fish in a pail of
water why they take life one of them replies that these are live fish
they are taking to release in the Hojo River, later reappearing as a
god to dance and quote seasonal poetry.
— 49
MATSUKAZE
BACKGKOLND
Yukihira. an Imperial Prince in the early Heian Period, is famous
as one of the great poets of that time. He was banished to Suraa
Beach but after three years returned to the Capital, where he later
died. While at Suma he loved the two sisters Matsukaze and
Murasame, who pined passionately for him the rest of their lives.
NOH
A priest (WAKI) on a pilgrimage to I lie western provinces
comes to Suma Beach, where he sees a beautiful pine tree.
He asks a Man of the Place (KYOGEN) about it and i.s told
that it is in memory of Matsukaze and Murasame of old. As
he is offering prayers there evening comes on, and, being far
from the village, he decides to stay the night in a nearby hut.
Two girls (SHITE and TSURE) appear, bemoaning their
hardships and the hard work of drawing salt water.
At Suma Beach here
Where waves come near
Not only the sea's
Wetting cur sleeves —
The moon engenders such sadness that tear
After tear adds dampness to our sleeves.
The autumn wind "' that makes the heart grow sad "' recalls
Yukihira's poem about the wind of Suma Beach (Note 1, a).
In a hut like this so far from the village no one
But the moon ever comes to keep you company.
There may be no easy way of earning
A living; but ours is especially lowly.
It sounds easy to draw water, but for
Weak girls even pulling the cart is difficult.
The woves roll in and out upon the sands
And up the re3dy shore, disturbing cranes
That rise with noisy fijtterings and cries (NOTE 1, b)
Mingled with the strongly-blowing gale ;
How then to pass- this chilly autumn night?
In the nocturnal sky the moon grows more
Serene ; and is also in the brine I draw.
Take core the solt-Idln smoke becloud not the moon !
To dip up the reflected moon how poetic !
On many a famous shore .
Salt-makers boil brine to make a living.
There is a moon in this pail ! Marvel !
Oh, joy ! In this one too there is a moon I
There's only one moon in the sky but two
Reflections on the cart.
Carrying moonlight does not seem like hard work.
After getting the sea water they go home, and the priest asks
for a night's lodging. Matsukaze first demurs that their home
is too mean a hovel, but she invites him in when she learns
he is a priest'. He recalls Yukihira's poem :
If there be someone who asks of me, tell him
I'm living in lowly sorrow at Suma Beach. (NOTE 1, c)
When he mentions that he prayed for the girls of the pine
they weep, finally revealing that they are the spirits of those
two girls, reminiscing :
Yukihira was here at Sumo for three years. Boating or consoling
himself viewing the moon, he chose us two sisters, noming us
Matsukaze and Murasame (NOTE 2). We served for his solace, and
grew ottached to him. Our clothes were changed from salt-soaked
garb to flDwing gowns of perfumed silk. After those three years he
returned to the Capital. Soon after that we heard he passed away.
O Beloved !
Since he died, there was no way we could hear from him, and
we lived a life of tears. But weeping helps not a whit I
O dear old days ! tord Yukihira was here for three years and when
he went bock to the Capital he left his headdress and robe as our
keepsake, (holding up tite garments) But whenever we see these
the longing for him but grows stronger and we ore unable to forget
him for even a moment.
Putting on the robe and hat Matsukaze weeps :
The pain of love torments even after death.
O joy ! Yukihira calls to me I I must go quickly !
50
She rushes to the pine but Murasame holds her back:
Whot folly ! That is why you are in torment ! Can you
never sever such binding attachment to this world ? That is
the pine Yultihira is not here !
Matsukaze responds :
Hov/ cruel! That pine is Yukihira - his very self! He said
that if he only hears we pine for him he will return.
This is the pine where my beloved lord lived. If he really
comes back according to his word, I wilt stand by this tree
and talk with him...
O My Beloved !
She expresses her passionate longing in a carassing dance
about the pine.
The wind in the pine tree is strong ;
The waves at Sumo Beach ore high at night.
We've come to you in a dream
Because of our attachement to this world.
Please pray for us.
We bid you farewell.
As they leave,
Across the beach comes the clear sound
Of the surf ; the morning breeze sweeps down
From the hills behind; from yonder town
A medley of crowing.
The priest wakes, reality regains ;
He wonders : Was it a dream Passing-Rain's
Voice, and Wind-in-the-Pine ? There remains
Nothing at all showing
In morning's light ; for he only sees
The tree hears just the soughing breeze
Passing, the wind through the pine tree's
Branches sofly blowing.
NOTES
1. Literary references
a. Yukihira's poem on the wind at Suma ;
The coastal wind from Suma
Blowing through the pass
Cools the travelers' sleeves.
(Referred to in GENJI MONOGATARI)
b. Allusion to a poem by Yamabe no Akahilo in MANYOSHU
c. Another poem by Yukihira (See ATSUMORI, NOTE 1, p. 15)
2. NAMES:
Mutsiikaze — 'wind in the pine'
Murasame— 'pzss'tng shower'
3. HIGH POINTS
Two scenes are famous for the beauty of their e.\prcssion of
poetic sensibility and emotion :
Pulling the cart "carrying the moonlight"
The passionate yearning in the dance around the pine
4. Dances
KUSE
Chu no Mai
Ha no Mai
5. Masks
SHITE : Zo
TSURE : tsure tnasK
- 51 —
MIIDERA
BACKGROUND
This is one of the many Noh on ilu- thomi' of a grief-crazed mother
seeking her lost child. (Others are SUMIDAGAWA, p. 64, HYAKUMAN,
p. 80 and SAKURAGAWA, p. 56. They generally end in a happy reunion,
except SUMIDAGAWA, in which the mother finds the child's grave on
the bank of the Sumida River.)
NOH
While llie mother (SHITE) is praying at Kiyomizu Temple
she dreams that she finds her lost child Senmitsu : an interpreter
of dreams (KYOGEN) comes out and offers to tell her its
meaning. She tells the dream : that she should go to Miidera.
a temple in Omi, if she wants to see her child; as he urges
her to go, she starts off happily.
Meanwhile, the people of Miidera gather in the temple
grounds awaiting sunset to view the Harvest Moon, with the
boy Senmitsu (KOKATA) whom they have found and taken
in. As they discuss how glorious is the beauty of the moon
on this one night of the year — if it be not clouded over — the
priest (WAKI) has the servant (KYOGEN) entertain the child
with a dance.
Hearing that a crazed woman is now wandering their way,
the servant wishes to bring her in. hoping to see her dance ;
when the priest flatly refuses, he opens the gates anyway, in
hopes she may wander in, and she does.
The mother comes, singing :
{holding a tzvig of bamboo)
Over the mountainous way I've come
To Shiga, where 1 see
Lake Biwa and the holy
Mountain Hiei<zan beyond.
(^■worshiping)
Though I may appear to be quite sane
To worship the holy mount religiously
It is not strange that I have lost my mind
Since my dear child was lost ; for even birds
And animals know affection between parent and child.
{I'crjonns a dame)
As I hurry through the country, how I wish
I could ask the trees along the way about my child.
.•\nd so she arrives at Miidera.
Both the priest and the mother quote poenl^ on the beauty
of the moon ; and she sings of the scenery.
The servant {niiinliig /he iictin/i <'ii;i>niiis/y) rings the bell,
one of the three most famous in Japan.
Impressed by the sound she determines to ring it herself,
but the priest- would prevent her. She disputes with him.
alluding to a poetic incident in ancient China. (Note 1, a) and
approaching the bell, begs :
Let me hear the bell and be freed from the cares
Of the world and calmly hear the preaching of Buddha.
She sings of various l>ells. with allusions to many classical
poems {pulliiiii /lie hcllmpc) illustrating various feelings of
bell sounds (Note 1, b) .
(Perforins a dance)
Watching her, Senmitsu wimders where she is from, so the
priest inquires. She answers that she is from Kiyomigaseki in
Suruga, Senmitsu repeats the name, and she realizes that the
child is her own lost son. The priest rebukes her as insane
for uttering such an idea but she retorts that having become
insane by separation from her child, why should she therefore
be insane when she again meets the child, who is indeed her
real son ? The attendant is about to strike her, but Senmitsu
prevents him. The priest in surprise asks the boy who he is,
and Senmitsu answers that he is from Kiyomigaseki and came
to this place through a dealer in children, but had no idea
that his mother was wandering about the country looking for him.
52
The mother apologizes for breaking out so rudely, then :
(as the priest places the hoy before her)
I rang the bell and was reproved by the priest
And then I found my son. Ordinarily
For a man and woman the ringing of a bell
Is not pleasant for it tells of time to leave.
But we have found each other because of the bell.
What gratitude I feel for the bell !
(looking up at the bell)
She embraces her child, with tears of joy.
(making the conventional Koh gesture of iveeping)
They go home happily to become a prosperous family.
NOTES
1. Literary references
a. The mother's defense:
There was a poet (Chia Tao of China) who composed:
The round full moon leaving
The mountain near the sea,
Rising in the sky.
But it wasn't complete so the poet concentrated on rounding
it out, gazing at the moon, and in inspiration added:
The moon tonight is very full.
There must not be any place unreached
By this serene light.
Beside himself with joy at this composition he climbed a
high tower and rang the bell. When he was reproved, he
answered: "I am crazed by poetry." If even such a great
man was so excited by the moon, is it not much more so
for a poor common woman like me ?
b. One of the poems :
The moon sets, birds cry out,
Frost pierces the night air ;
Fishermen's fires burn out,
While on the anchored boot
The midnight bell is heard.
2. Mask
SHITE : Shakum,
3. Dances
Iroe
KIR I
A. TSUKURIMONO
Bell tower, with bell and lengthy bellrope.
5. For use of KOKATA see ATAKA, NOTE 5, p. 13.
53 —
MOMIJI GARI
BACKGROLXD
This plot of a man-eating ogress of the forest appearing in the
form of a beautiful lady to entice a young warrior is a story as old
as literature. The beauty of the Noh is enhanced by placing it in a
setting of autumn maple. (Momiji Gari means 'Maple Viewing')
NOH
A beautiful lady (SHITE) is having a maple-viewing party
with her ladies-in-waiting (TSURE) deep in the Togakushi
Mountains among the brilliant autumn leaves. When the
renowTied warrior Koremochi (\V.-\KI) and his hunting party
(WAKI TSURE) come upon them he courteously dismounts
{indicated by handing his hozv and arroiv to attendant) and,
to avoid intruding, takes another path around, but is accosted
and enticed to drink (xcith the conventional Xoh gesture of
pouring SAKE). By wine (Note 1) and her erotic dancing,
he is captivated and seduced :
Commit the sin of drinking and the sin
Of lewdness and of falsehood then begin.
As the woman performs a dance, she makes certain he is
asleep ; then concludes the dance at a quickened tempo, and
disappears into a nearby mound (represented by a covered
bamboo frame).
In the INTERLUDE, a god (KYOGEN) sent by
the chief diety of the Otokoyama Hachiman Shrine
of which Koremochi is a devout worshiper, warns
him in a drectm and gives him a sword with which
to kill the demon.
As Koremochi awakes in shame from his drunken stupor, he
is confronted by a fearful monster — ten feet high, with great
horns and blazing eyes.
Parrying her attack, lie calmly runs iier through. Slashing
as she jumps ujion a rock, he ])ulls her down and valiantly
stabs her to death.
NOTES
1. Classical reference
The drink with which he is tempted is called the " wine
of chrysanthemum dew" {Sec KANTAN, NOTE 1, b. p. 36.)
2. Masks
SHITE : Mambi
NOCHI SHITE: Shikami
3. Dances
KUSE
Chit no Mai
Maihataraki
4. For a similar theme sec KUROZUKA, p. 48.
54
OHARA GOKO
BACKGROUND
After the Heike Clan were destroyed at Dannoura, the former
empress Kenrei retired to a Httle hut in the mountains with two of
her former ladies-in-waiting, Lady Dainagon and Lady Awa, spending
her days in prayers for the souls of her son the infant Emperor
Antoku and her mother, drowned at Dannoura.
NOH
A Court official (WAKI TSURE) announces that Cioshirakawa,
a retired emperor, is to visit Kenrei (SHITE).
{Ohcira Goko means 'Visit to O-Hara")
Kenrei "s hut (Note 2) is revealed (/;_v ii/icovcri>ig the /hutched
framezvoi-k) and her way of life here is described in song.
She leaves with Lady Dainagon (TSURE) to collect herbs of
the mountain to use for offerings.
Goshirakawa (TSURE) and his attendants (WAKI and WAKI
TSURE) arrive by carriage, one of the attendants describing
the quiet serenity and Goshirakawa reciting a poem.
Informed as to where Kenrei has gone, they wait.
Returning, the women pray for the Emperor Antoku and the
Heike people who were killed. Goshirakawa's visit recalls her
life at Court in contrast to the present, filling her with
nostalgia.
Again in her hut, she reminisces on the days when she
lived a colorful and sophisticated life as Empress. She relates
her flight with her mother and her infant son, the Emperor,
in company with the Heike army, until they were driven into
the sea at Dannoura. Her mother leaped from a boat with
the infant Emperor in her arms and both were drowned.
Kenrei also tried to drown herself but was rescued, so lives
now like this in devotions and somber sadness.
-**■ -'^ ■ "" ■"■■"S
NOTES
1. Masks
SHITE : Zo
TSURE : tsure mask
2. TSUKURIMONO
The hut, represented by a bamboo framework.
3. This is a relatively rare type of Noh which creates an at-
mosphere of poetic sadness (MONO NO AWARE) and elegant
gracefulness (Yl'GEN) — by appeal to the sensibilities of sight
and sound only — through music, costumes, and solemnity of
slow movement and restrained gestures.
In IKARI KAZUKI the tragic death of the infant Emperor is related to
a traveling priest, first by an old boatman, then by the spirit of the
warrior Tomomori who died at that time by casting himself into the
sea holding an anchor.
55 —
SAKURAGAWA
BACKGROUND
SAKURAGAWA is second only to SUMIDAGAWA (p. 64) in popularity
among Noh with the theme of a distraught mother searching for her
lost child. Others include: MIIDERA (p. 52), and HYAKUMAN (p. 80).
NOH
A child dealer (WAKI TSURE) from the East has been in
Kyushu where he bought a boy called Sakurago, at whose
request he delivers a letter and the money he paid for the boy
to his mother (SHITE).
She reads Sakurago's letter : His mother's life has long been
so miserable that he has sold himself to the man-dealer and is
going to the East with him, suggesting it would be best for
her to become a nun ; she would call the man back but he was
already gone.
Praying the mercy of the local guardian goddess {see beloxv)
on Sakurago she leaves her home, which has become unbearable
without her son. and goes looking for him.
Three years pass.
The head priest (WAKI) of Isobe Temple in Hitachi (Ibaragi
Prefecture) takes Sakurago (KOKATA) and attendants (WAKI
TSURE) to the Sakuragawa for cherry blossom viewing, where
the group are met by a village man (WAKI TSURE) who tells
of a deranged woman gathering the fallen blossoms.
At the villager's suggestion the woman (NOCHI SHITE) is
called in. She expresses in dance her love for the cherry
blossoms which is mingled with her affection for her son
Sakurago. When the priest asks her why she has become thus
she explains :
— 56
Separated from her son Sokurago in Kyushu, traveling after him by
ship ond overlond, she has now come to this famous Soliuragawa.
The name Sakuragawa meaning so much to her (NOTE 1), especially
as it is now spring, she just wanders along the river, scooping up the
floating petals, for — as the guardian goddess of her native place
represents SAKURA her son was named Sokurago, and this is Sakura-
gawa even fallen flowers are too valuable to be wasted.
Realizing her deep sorrow the priest, after confirming her
identity, informs her that Sakurago is with him.
After their happy reunion she takes him home and becomes
a nun — that in this world and for the life hereafter they^shall
not want.
NOTES
1. Names
Sakuragatva — 'cherry blossom river'
Sakurago — 'cherry blossom child'
2. Mask
SHITE: Shakiimi
3. Dances
Kakeri (showing her madness engendered by the falling
blossoms)
Iroe (her mingled love for the sakura and her son)
KUSE (to accompaniment of lyrics on the falling flowers)
Ami no Dan (her longing for her son)
4. Stage Property
SUKUI AMI (fisherman's net), with which she scoops up the
floating petals.
57
SHAKKYO
BACKGROUND
The Lion Dance exists in various forms, from India and Central
Asia to China and Japan. Noh (like the Kabuki copied from it)
simply expresses the spirit of playful lions gamboting about in a
mountain wilderness.
NOH
A priest (WAKI) oh a pilgrimage through India and China
comes to the Stone Bridge (Shakkys) and he.sitates to cross it.
A boy (SHITE) comes, singing of the scenery. The priest
asks him if this is Shakkyo and the boy answers that it is
and beyond the bridge is Mt. Seiryo, the Paradise of the Monju
Buddha (Note 1, a).
The priest is about to cross the bridge, trusting his life to
the mercy of Buddha. The boy stops him, for from olden
times even well-known priests crossed this bridge only after
long and rigorous ascetic self discipline. He warns the priest it
is a perilous act. referring to an old saying about the lion
(Note 1, b). then describes the awesome bridge:
This is not a man-made structure : it come out by itself connecting
from rock to rocl<, so is coiled 'Stone Bridge'. Less than a foot wide,
slippery, covered with moss, more than thirty feet long ; the valley
more than a thousand feet below ; waterfalls hanging down through
the clouds — below that may be Hell. The sound of svoter and wind
resounding together would move rivers and mountains. Looking deep
down into the valley below feet trembling, heart fainting who would
dare to cross ? Truly none but those who hove the miraculous power
of Buddha shall go ! But beyond it is the sacred land of Monju with
everlasting music and flowers. Wait here for an Appearance.
In the INTERLUDE demi-gods (KYOGEN, icear-
i/ig /luisks) explain that it was Monju who appeared
in the form of a boy. Feeling sorry for the priest
whom he has prevented from crossing the bridge,
he will let him see a marvelous sight. They have
— 53 —
come to watch too, drinking while they wait. But
they become tipsy and afraid to watch the shishi
('Hons") about to come, so they run ofi.
The "lion' (NOCHI SHITE) comes and performs a unique
dance, remarkably vigorous and active ; then a short closing
number.
NOTES
1. Literary and classical references
a. Monju is one of the two great BOSATSU of the Buddhist
triad (the other being Fugen. See EGUCHI, NOTE 1, b, p. 21)
b. The saying :
A lion about to eat a flea
First gets ready carefully.
Dances
Shishi Mai
KIRI (to accompaniment of song referring to peony flowers)
Masks
SHITE: Jido
NOCHI SHITE: Shishiguchi
TSUKURIMONO
Dias representing the Stone Bridge
Peonies
Variations
1) Han Noh : Performances are quite often given of only the
NOCHI (latter part).
2) The number of 'lions' for the Shishi Mai varies.
3) Performed without the INTERLUDE the SHITE role is
played by a TSURE.
4) Under some circumstances of programing, the SHITE role is
portrayed as an old man instead of a boy.
SHBH^
IT^'^X
Ri* '"
|PSr.'--
1 ^^m^r-
WS^SSMX:^^!^^
Kojishi MASK
Shishiguchi MASK
— 59
SHOJO
Kofu (.WAKI) comes on stage and tells his story:
(an old Chinese legend)
Being told in o dream that os a reword for his filiol piety, if he
would go to the town when there wos a fair ond sell SAKE he would
become rich, he has been doing so and getting richer and richer.
There is a man who comes to drink lots of SAKE at every fair. Curious
as to the man's identity, because he never seemed to be affected by
any amount he drank, he asked who he was. The man answered he
was a Shojo.
(an imaginary red-faced animal resembling the orangutan)
Anxious to see him again, to find out more about him, Kofu
is waiting at his regular place with scike for him.
The Shojo (SHITE) appears and is happy to see him. After
drinking convivially he dances on the waves under the clear
moon and stars. After the dance he tells Kofu that his filial
piety will be rewarded : the soke which he has given him will
never run out. Then he drops off to sleep — Kofu ihought in
his dream.
Kofu awoke from his dream ; but the source of his sake truly
never failed and his house prospered enormously.
NOTES
1. Mask
SHITE : Shojo
2. Dances
Chu no Mai
KIRI
3. Variations
The Shojo may be increased to two, or seven.
MIDARE is a standard variation in which the Midare Dance is perform-
ed instead of Chii no Mai.
TAIHEI SHOJO is a variant of SHOJO.
60
SHUNKAN
BACKGROUND
This is one of the most emotional, and tragic, of all Noh.
The priest Shunkan conspired with Fujiwara no Naritsune and Taira
no Yasuyori- high officials, and others, against Kiyomori, dictatorial
head of the ruling Heike (Taira) Clan. When the plot was discovered
the three were banished to Kikaigashima ('Devils' Island'), a barren
dot of land far off Kyushu — also called Iwogashima ('Sulphur Island').
NOH
A Government Messenger (WAKI) announces that he has been
appointed as the bearer of a pardon for Naritsune and Yasuyori
granted under the amnesty proclaimed in connection with the
prayers offered on behalf of the approaching childbirth of Her
Majesty the Empress ( Kiyomori "s daughter) ; and orders a
Sailor (KYOGEN) to make ready a ship for his immediate
departure to their place of exile.
Meanwhile, the two exiles (TSURE) are carrying on Shinto
rites to the gods of Kumano, singing medleys of religious
piety and gloomy despair over their forlorn state in banishment :
Our tattered hamper garments must be mode
To serve as holy vestments ; and white sand
We throw Instead of rice to cast out evil.
Shunkan (SHITE), a former priest in Zen Buddhism, has
remained aloof but now comes to meet them with a bucket of
water, saying he has brought wine to entertain them on their
way home. They are incredulous that he could find wine on
that desolate island and looking into the bucket, exclaim:
Why, this is nothing but water.
Shunkan then justifies, by lyrical exposition of well-known
classical allusions, the identification of water with wine. (Note 1)
I hey sit down to a mock banquet; Shunkan serves "wine"
(usi/ig his fan. In /he conventional Noh gesture of pouring),
invoking memories that but intensify their despondency.
Suddenly the Messenger arrives (standing in the 'boat'), to
deliver the jjardon, and the three are transported with joy.
But when the document is read aloud Shunkan's name is not
heard. As he grasps the scroll and scrutinizes it, incapable of
believing his name is not mentioned, the Messenger confirms
that the omission of his name was intentional. Shunkan shouts :
Why ? Was not our crime identical ? and our place of
banishment the some ? The amnesty should be likewise !
The horror of his despair is expressed in an exquisite lyric
of classical quotations of poignant grief, ending :
Hark ! Birds and beasts are crying out
My anguish with me.
Again he searches for his name, hoping against hope, taking
even the paper wrapping of the scroll, turning it over and over,
but there is nothing, not a word like his name, nor even
resembling his title — nothing at all.
The Messenger coldly orders the others to stop wasting time
and go aboard at once. Shunkan, in a frenzy, grasps his
departing friend by the sleeve, pleading for pity of the
Messenger, quoting :
Even official duty allows for individual kindness.
But the Messenger, hardened to all sense of mercy, beats him
off with the oar. When he seizes the mooring rope to hold
back the departing ship he cuts the rope free and casts off,
leaving him crying hoarsely midst the foaming surf. Hopelessly
he throws himself upon the sand, sobbing out the heartache of
his fathomless despair.
61
The companions of his exile aboard the ship, in heartfelt
sympathy, shout encouragement to him again and again across
the waves, promising that when they reach the Capital they will
intercede on his behalf, till voices and figures grow faint, and
then are hid behind the waves on the far-off horizon.
NOTES
1. Classical reference
Chrysanthemum wine (Sec KANTAN, NOTE 1, b, p. 36. )
2. Mask
SHITE: Shunka?i (used only for this Noh)
3. TSUKURIMONO
A bamboo framework representing a boat.
{See FUNA BENKEI, NOTE 3, p. 25. )
62
SOSHI ARM
BACKGROUND
Komachi ( Ono no Komachi) was the famous Heian beauty known for
her poetry as well as her amours. (See KAYOI KOMACHI, p. 38)
NOH
The poet Kuronushi (WAKI) announces that the Emperor is
holding a Poetry Contest on the following day, at which he
will be pitted against Komachi. Lacking confidence in bettering
her by fair means, he plans to do so by foul.
At home, Komachi (SHITE) orally composes her poem, as
Kuronushi and his servent (KYOGEN) eavesdrop.
In the INTERLUDE the servant ruminates on his
master's obsession to win in the poetry contest.
The Emperor (KOKATA) presides at the poetry contest.
When Komachi's poem (Note 1), is read Kuronushi accuses
her of having plagiarized it, showing as proof a sheet of the
MANYOSHU on which Komachi's poem is written; but
Komachi knows that he has written the poem into the old
collection. Receiving the Emperor's permission to test it, she
washes the poem from the page, {luixiing the action) provmg
that the ink was hardly dry. Kuronushi starts to leave in
shame, intending to die, but is forgiven. Komachi then per-
forms dances glorifying the love of poetry.
NOTES
1. Komachi's poem {waka) :
(Appointed subject for the Poetry Contest: "Water Plants )
Unplanted, floating grasses grow
From what seed I do not know,
In furrowed waves, row on row.
2. Mas/; and Costumes
SHITE : Zo
All wear conventional costumes of the Imperial Court.
3. Dances
Chii no Mai
KIRI (glorifying poetry)
4. THE HIGH POINT of this Noh is the action of the SHITE in
miming the washing of the poem from the purported page of
the MANYOSHf .
5. For use of KOKATA see ATAXA, NOTE 5, p. 13.
Another Noh of Kuronushi:
SHIGA. A courtier is met by the diefied spirit of Kuronushi.
63
SUMIDAGAWA
BACKGROUND
SUMIDAGAWA is the most tragic among Noh on the theme of a
grief-crazed mother seeking her lost child.
NOH
The boatman (WAKI) who operates the ferry across the
Sumidagawa (Note 1) announces that a crowd is gathering for
a solemn memorial service on the opposite bank of the river.
A traveler (WAKI TSURE) from the Capital tells of a mad
woman approaching who dances most amusingly, so the boatman
waits to see her.
The mother (SHITE) sings her grief, and parforms a dance.
(currying a spray of bamboo)
The boatman speaks roughly to her but she rebukes him
with poetic reproofs, telling of her fruitless search for her
child, and demands to be ferried across. The boatman declares
her "the most sensible mad woman I've ever seen;"" and they
all board the ferry.
The boatman, as he ferries them across ip!y'"g '"■'' pole).
tells the sad tale of what happened just a year ago this day:
A dealer in children passing there with o tender lod of twelve
deserted the boy when he fell mortally ill from the unaccustomed
rigor of the forced travel, leaving him to die on the bank by the
roadside. The good country people, judging by his appearance that
he was of noble birth, tried to nurse him bock to health, but in vain.
Just before he met his fate the boy identified himself clearly, naming
his home and parentage, explaining that he had been kidnapped at
the Capital. Then, like a man, he asked that he be buried there on
the bonk "that at least the shadows of the travelers from the Capital
may be cost upon my grave," and that they plant a willow tree in
memory of him ; invoking Amida Buddha, he died.
The mother ascertains by careful questioning that the stolen
child was her own lost son.
64 —
The boatman, in heartfelt sympathy, leads her to the child's
grave beneath the willow tree.
She cries out in anguish :
(kneeling in front of the mound)
I had hoped against hope to find my child, and now
He is no more upon the earth ; only
This mound remains. O, cruel ! Was it that he
Was born to be torn from his home and thus become dust
Beside the rood ?
Can my dear child be truly lying here
Beneath this sod ?
She would dig out the mound, " to gaze once more upon his
mortal form;" and though the boatman urges her to join in
prayers (striking a prayer gong in his hands) for the repose
of his soul, she is at first too overcome with grief to pray, but
finally takes the prayer gong and joins them as they call upon
Amida Buddha :
Namu Amida ! Nomu Amida !
The voice of the child comes faintly from within the mound,
then an apparition of the child glides forth as a floating
wraith, retreating, coming forth again, eluding her when she
tries to embrace it, returning finally into the mound as she
weeps inconsolably.
NOTES
1. The action supposedly takes place on both the banks of the
Sumida River and the ferry boat, at a point near the present
Asakusa in Tokyo.
2. Dance
Kakeri (expressing the mother's crazed frenzy of grief)
3. Mask
SHITE : Shakumi
4. TSUKURIMONO
A framework representing a boat.
{See FUNA BENKEI, NOTE 3, p. 25.)
A covered framework representing the burial mound.
5. Though apparitions are common in Noh. the child ghost is
unique; however, in a variation of this Noh the child does not
appear — only a voice comes from within the mound.
65
TADANORI
BACKGROUND
This Noll is founded upon a touching incident in romantic history
and built around a single literary allusion.
The incident is the death of the young court noble Tadanori at the
Battle of Ichinotani. The poem is a waka by Tadanori which was
included in an Imperial collection (NOTE 1, a) unsigned (as his family
was involved in a revolt).
The theme is that his spirit cannot rest— is still attached to this
world by life's desires, for fear his poem may remain anonymous.
There are recurring references to the poem, and it is quoted in full
three times: by SHITE, WAKI and Chorus and finally skillfully
paraphrased for the closing lines.
NOH
A traveling monk (WAKI) and his attendants (WAKI TSURE)
arrive at Ichinotani on Suma Bay where they meet an old man
(SHITE) making an offering of flowers before a cherry tree
that was planted there in memory of Tadanori. As they talk
the sun sets and the man asks for a night's lodging. The old
man retorts, " Is there better lodging than beneath these cherry
blossoms ?" and quotes Tadanori's poem:
Wandering into late twilight
I lodge beneath a cherry tree
Its blossoms are mine host this night.
The monk in turn repeats the poem, identifying the poet.
The old man explains that this cherry tree was planted where
Tadanori fell in battle, so the monk offers prayers for his soul.
Rejoicing for the prayers and promising to return in a dream,
he vanishes from sight, {as the monk prays)
In the INTERLUDE a Man of the Place (KYOGEN)
recites the story of the tree and of Tadanori's death.
66
As the monks sleep beneath the cherry tree, Tadanori
(NOCHI SHITE) reappears in a dream as the Heike warrior he
was, lamenting his attachment to this world because his poem
does not bear his name, and seeking official recognition.
The priest muses :
The fairest fortune befalling one
Must be to be born a poet's son {NOTE 1, b)
And live in the love of poetry.
For Tadanori how much more
Highly skilled in arts of v/ar
And honored by all for his poetry.
Tadanori relates his fatal combat {iniiiii/ig the action of
both xcarriors) and the victorious enemy's subsequent discovery
and reading of the poem attached to an arrow in his quiver.
{Performs a dance)
The closing song and dance ends with the paraphrase :
When you lodge belov/
The flowering bough
The blossoms are your host.
NOTES
1. Literary references
a. The poem appears anonymously in SENZAISHU.
b. Poems by Tadamori, Tadanori's father, are included in
anthologies collected under Imperial auspices.
2. Masks
SHITE : Jo
NOCHI SHITE: Chujo
3. Dances
Kakeri
KIRI
4. THE HIGH POINT of the Noh comes as Tadanori's phantom,
immediately following the miming of his own death, portrays
the victorious enemy's discovery and reading of the poem, then
reverts to the role of Tadanori as a disquieted spirit of the
other world.
5. For other warriors eulogized for aesthetic sensibility, see EBIRA,
p. 19; and TSUNEMASA, p. 75.
Another Noh :
SHUNZEl TADANORI. The same story: discovery of Tadanori's poem,
and his ghostly complaint.
— 67
TAKASAGO
BACKGROLND
In classical references the Twin Pines of Takasago and Sumiyoshi
symbolize longevity and conjugal fidelity ; in this Noh they also stand
for the MANYOSHf and the KOKINSHC anthologies, respectively,
since the traditional role of poetry was to insure the peace and
prosperity of the realm.
NOH
A priest (WAKI) of a shrine in Kjoishu, on a tour with his
attendants (WAKI TSURE), lands at Takasago Bay to see its
famous pine tree. Beneath the spring breezes soughing in the
Takasago Pine an old couple (SHITE and TSURE) are sweeping
away the fallen pine needles {carrying a besom and a >-cikc).
He asks them how it is that the Takasago and the Sumiyoshi
Pines are called 'Twin Pines' though they are in different places.
They sing :
Though mountoins and rivers and thousands of miles
Between them lie a man and wife in love
Are ever together in heart.
Eventually they reveal they represent the Pines, appearing
in human form as man and wife.
The old man then takes a boat {miming the action of hoard-
ing a boat), saying he will await him at Sumiyoshi.
In the INTERLUDE a Man of the Place
(KYOGEN) tells the priest the legend of the
Pines, and offers to transport him to Sumiyoshi.
When the priest arrives at Sumiyoshi he is met by the diety
(NOCHI SHITE) in his true form, who does a dance, singing:
Thousand-year evergreen filling my hand
Plucking plum blossoms to deck my hair
Petals like spring snow fall o'er my robe.
He then performs a 'god-dance" ; and closes with a song and
dance of felicitation.
NOTES
1. The general popularity of TAKASAGO is attested by the fact that
it is customary for several lines from this UTAI to be sung at
a wedding party, ordinarily by the man who acts as 'go-between.'
Also, representations of the aged couple, on scrolls, as figurines
or dolls, etc. are very common.
Dance
Kiiiiii Mai
Masks
SHITE: Jo
TSURE : Uha
NOCHI SHITE: Kanlan Otoko
2.
3.
— 68
TAMURA
BACKGROUND
Tamura was a victorious general who, in devotion to Kannon, built
Kiyomizu Temple, which has been for centuries one of the most
popular temples in Kyoto. There is a shrine dedicated to Tamura
within the grounds. A shrine of Jishu Gongen, a local diety, on the
slope behind is referred to in the poetry below.
NOH
A traveling monk (WAKI) and his attendants (WAKI TSURE)
arrive at Kiyomizu Temple on an evening when the cherry
blossoms are in full bloom.
A lad (SHITE) carrying a besom for sweeping under the
cherry trees comes, singing of the beautiful blossoms :
Behold the snowy garden of the shrine
In dazzling white, eclipsing clouds and mist ;
The boughs blurred with the voried-petaled flowers.
The Capitol and the mountain ranges round
Beneath Spring's sky show forth their radiant beauty.
At the monk's request, he relates the history of the temple,
pointing out nearby scenic spots and extolling its patron diety.
When the monk asks his identity, he answers, "' Watch where
I go," and enters the Tamura Shrine.
In the INTERLUDE a Man of the Place
(KYOGEN) relates the history of the temple and
the exploits of Tamura.
As the monk intones the Lotus Sutra, Tamura's spirit (NOCHI
SHITE) reappears as a noble general of long ago, and tells by
song and dance how he vanquished the 'demons' (barbarians)
in the Suzuka Mountains through devotion to Kannon.
NOTES
1. Dances
KCSE (Expressing the bi;auty of the spring evening in
cherry-blossom time.)
Kakeri (Suggesting his victorious encounter with the
demons.)
KIRI (Dramatic gestures and movements accompanying the
song of .his victory.)
2. Masks
SHITE : Don
NOCHI SHITE: Heida
3. This Noh is unusual in that Tamura is a victorious general, of
an age before the HeikeGenji Period, whereas the hero of this
type of Noh (Second Group) is usually a Heike warrior killed
in battle. (See YASHIMA, NOTE 1, p. 76)
— 69 —
TENKO
An Imperial envoy (WAKI) lells:
(an old Cliincsr ftary)
A couple called Ohoku and Obo had a son they named Tenko because
just before the child was born his mother dreomed that a drum from
heaven fall into her womb. Then the boy got a real drum from
heaven and it made such a marvelous sound the news of it reached
the emperor, who wanted the drum. But Tenko hid himself in the
mountains with the drum, only to be found and drowned. The drum
is kept in the palace but has never made a sound. The emperor,
realizing why the drum is silent, has sent for Tenko's father,
Tenko's father (SHITE), living in grief and tears, follows
unwillingly to Court, expecting he also is to be killed. He
laments that, although a man should try to overcome his grief,
looking for Nirvana, he cannot forget the loss of his son, whom
he cannot make himself believe is no longer in this world.
At the courtier's insistence he helplessly strikes the drum,
and strangely it gives out a heavenly sound of lovely sentiment,
moving the emperor to tears.
The courtier tells the father that the emperor was so moved
he shall be given treasures, and musical services are to be
offered for Tenko. He orders a servant (KYOGEN) to see him
home ; then has musicicins summoned for the services.
When the ceremony is held in the presence of the emperor
at the place where Tenko was drowned the boy's spirit (NOCHI
SHITE) comes out of the river and expresses his gratitude, for
he has now been saved from the torments of hell, and praises
the Imperial reign. Then he plays his drum and dances in an
ecstasy through the night till the rustle of people and the
morning light fade his pheintom away.
NOTES
1. TSUKURIMONO
Drum set on a bamboo framework
2. Dances
Gaku (a solemn dance expressing his pious ecstasy)
KIKI (a dance of joy, and farewell to the drum)
3. Masks
SHITE: Jo
NOCHI SHITE: Doji
70 —
TOBOKU
BACKGROUND
TOBOKU is designed to illustrate the romantic temperament of Lady
Izumi, a poetess endowed with rare poetic sensibility, notorious for
her love affairs with various princes, but remembered most for a
plum tree she had planted at the Toboku In, under the eaves of her
west window. Attaining enlightenment through her poetry, she
became a Bosalsu of Song and Dance in the 'Western Paradise' upon
her death.
NOH
Many years after the death of Lady Izumi, when the former
palace has become a temple, with her plum tree still putting
forth its exquisite blossoms as in days of old, a traveling monk
(WAKI), guided to the place by a Man of the Place (KYOGEN),
sits admiring the plum blossoms. Lady Izumi's spirit (SHITE)
appears as a maiden, finally identifying herself as the mistress
of the plum tree, then vanishing into the shadow of the tree.
In the INTERLUDE, the Man of the Place tells
the story of Toboku In and Lady Izumi's 'Plum
Tree by the Eaves.'
She reappears in her true form, performing dances £md
singing in praise of poetry :
Poetry is indeed a sermon...
The memory of only poets lives on forever...
Poetry moves Heaven and Earth
And melts the Demon's heart.
The Chorus alludes to an ancient poem :
The flower returns from v^hence it comes
The bird returns to its old nest.
And as she glides back into the temple hall the monk
awakens from his dream.
NOTES
1. Lady Izumi's tree is poetically associated with the beautiful
plum tree of which it is said that a poetess, when it was
requisitioned as a replacement for an Imperial tree that had
died, attached the following poem to its branches:
Honored by the Imperial command —
Yet what shall I tell the nightingale
When it returns.
2. Mask
SHITE: Zo
3. Dances
KUSE
Jo no Mai
KIR I
Another Noh about Lady Izumi:
SEIGANJI. Izumi appears to a man at her grave at Seigan Temple,
in Kyoto, first as a woman, then as a diety of poetry and dance.
— 71 —
TORU
BACKGKOLNU
To writers of later times the Heian Period was the Golden Age.
Such extravagant exaggerations of luxurious living as the story of
Toru's seawater pool are not uncommon.
NOH
A traveling priest (WAKI) arrives at the Capital and comes
to the ruins of Kawara no In on the night of the Harvest Moon.
An old man (SHITE) carrying salt buckets slung over his
shoulders comes and, viewing the ruins of the famous mansitm,
laments :
When the moon is in the sky, the tide is high, it's lonesome at
Shiogoma Beach. This is a place of rare beauty, and enjoying the
scenery, a lonesome old man like me feels the sensibility of the poem :
As I count the days of the moon
This evening is just mid-autumn.
The priest asks him if he lives nearby, also wondering about
the salt buckets. Then the old man answers that this place,
Kawara no In, is properly called Shiogama Beach because many
centuries ago Toru built his garden as a copy of Shiogama
Beach on the northern coast (Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture).
Meanwhile the moon has risen, moving them to recite poetry
and ponder upon people of the past.
At the priest's request he tells the history of Kawara no In
in the early Heian Period.
Minister Minamoto no Toru, son of Emperor Sago, built a mansion here
and hod his garden patterned after the famous Shiogama Beach. He
had the pool filled daily in imitation of the tide, with sea water
carried up every day from Noniwo (Osaka), and indulged in the
pastime of watching salt-burning I NOTE 1 ). After Toru's death nobody
kept up the place so the pool dried up and dead leaves floated on
the stognont rain water. The poet Tsorayoki ( NOTE 2 ) sow it and
made a poem on the pathetic sight of the once elegant splendor.
— 72 —
When the old man finishes his story he is overcome by
throbbing sorrow of yearning for the past. The priest consoles
him by diverting his attention to the surrounding mountains in
rich autumn hues. Then he remembers that he was going to
draw salt water and approaches the shore of the pool where
he disappears in the spray of the surf, as it were.
In the INTERLUDE a Man of the Place
(KYOGEN) tells the priest the history of Toru
and his marvelous salt-water pools.
The priest decides ;
On this beach, on a rock bed with moss sheet I'll lie down expecting
more wonders as if waiting for a dream.
The spirit of Toru (NOCHI SHITE) returns, reminiscing:
Though I have forgotten this world for a long time, I have now come
back to see the moon. I'm the one known as Toru who loved the
Beach of Shiogama many years ago. The beach so fascinated me
that I used to spend the bright moonlight nights in a boat among the
islands dancing and dancing
A dancing figure is as beautiful as the falling petals of the laurel
flower in the moon.
He dances and sings exotic praises of the moon.
In the early spring, why isn't the moon clear ?
Because of the mist along the mountains far away.
An eyebrow like faraway mountains is also like the new moon.
The new moon may be likened to a sailing vessel.
Fish in the water may wonder if it be a hook.
Flying birds are frightened by it as of on arrow.
The moon never falls from heaven
Though water may evaporate it will return as rain.
As birds start singing and bells ringing announcing the dawn
he goes with the fading moonlight.
NOTES
1. See MATSUKAZE, p. 50, for references to salt making.
2. Tsurayuki : poet of the early Heian Period.
3. Masks
SHITE : Jo
NOCHI SHITE: Chujo
4. Dance
— 73 —
TSUCHIGUMO
HACKGROl NU
TSUCHIGUMO is ihe most popular Noh of a fearful monster. It is
basid on a primitive story from NIHONSHOKI retold in HEIKE
MONOGATARI.
NOH
A maid (TSURE) bringing medicine to the mansion of
Raiko. who is confined to his bed by a mysterious malady, is
announced by a servant (TSURE). After she leaves, a priest
(SHITE) comes and talks with Kaiko (TSURE), telling him
that his illness has been caused by a spider (tsuchigumo.)
When Raiko sees that the priest himself is the spider, it
tries to emmesh him in a web, but Kaiko attacks it with a
sword he has by his pillow. Wounded, it flees.
Raiko's warrior Hitorimusha (WAKI) rushes in and is told
what has happened. Finding a trail of blood, he announces
that he will follow the monster to its lair and slay it.
In the INTERLUDE his servant (KYOGEN) recapitulates.
Hitorimusha and his warriors arrive at the mound where the
spider (NOCHI SHITE) is hiding. Hitorimusha finally kills the
monster in a fierce battle and returns in triumph to the Capital.
NOTES
1. TSUKURIMONO
The monster's lair, represented by a bamboo framework
covered with spider's web.
2. Mask
NOCHI SHITE: Shikami
3. Dance
Maibataraki
4. The highly dramatic and comparatively realistic throwing out of
paper streamers as the spider's entangling web is a type of
action unique to this Noh.
Other Noh about Raiko (Yorimitsu)
OEYAMA. Yorimitsu (Raiko), under an Imperial Order to annihilate
the demon Shutendoji, with his retainers disguised as YAMABUSHI
(see ATAKA, NOTE 4, p. 13) locate the demon on Oe Yama through
a woman made captive by him ; and after taking advantage of his
unwilling hospitality attack him as he sleeps and kill him.
RASHOMON. After returning from Oe Yama (see above) Yorimitsu
and his retainers are drinking and discussing the rumor that Rashomon,
one of the gates of the Capital, is haunted by a demon ; one of the
men, Tsuna, on a dare goes to the place, where he is attacked by the
demon whom he defeats by slicing off one of its arms, and returns
proudly to his comrades. (The Kabuki IBARAGI follows this episode.)
74
TSUNEMASA
BACKGROUND
Tsunemasa, scion of the Heike (Taira) Clan, was granted high
Imperial favor for his skill with the lute. After his death in battle
his lord arranged to have the lute dedicated at his temple.
NOH
A priest (WAKI) has gathered musicians to dedicate the great
lute, when unexpectedly the voice of Tsunemasa (SHITE) comes :
Wind in the trees— rain sounds under cleor sl<ie5 ;
Moonlight on sand, like frost on a summer night. (NOTE 1)
His shadow falls dimly within the pale of their flickering
candle light, then disappears; but his voice lingers, identifying
himself as Tsunemasa, even through the wall of death his
undying devotion to his lord thus declaring :
Though the water in the garden's courses alter —
Still I shall not weary of my lord's house.
The priest expresses gratitude for the marvel of being able
to converse with the dead, and Tsunemasa tells the story of
this lute SEIZAN now being dedicated, which was given him
by his lord. As the service proceeds with a concord of many
instruments, Tsunemasa steals up, unseen, and plucks the
strings of his beloved lute.
Then he dances as the chorus sings of the sound of lute
music.
He performs another dance, still his shadow only visible.
But the anguish of the Asura Hell begins to return upon
him here where he has momentarily returned to this world :
Though his heart is set on music, he cannot stay
Wind snuffs the candle out and wafts his phantom away,
In the darkness not e'en
His shadow can be seen.
NOTES
1. Literary reference
From a poem by the Chinese poet Po Chui, comparing the
sound of the wind in the trees to that of rain, and sands
bathed in moonlight to frost.
2. Mask
SHITE: Jiiroku
3. Dances
KUSE
Kakeri
KIR I
4. For other Noh on a manly, courageous warrior imbued with
aesthetic sensibility, see EBIRA, p. 19; and TADANCRI, p. 66.
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75 —
YASHIMA
BACKGROLNl)
The bay of Yashima was the scene of a great battle in the struggle
between the Minamoto and Taira clans (the Genji-Heike Wars).
NOH
A priest (.WAKI) and his attendants (WAKl I'Sl'KK) arrive
at Yashima and are given lodging at the house of two fisliermen
(SHITE and TSURE), one of whom describes the scene of the
battle in such vivid detail that the priest asks his name. He
is made to understand that it is the ghost of the famous
military hero Yoshitsuns, the (ienji commander in that battle,
who then disappears.
In the INTERLUDE a .Man of the Place
(KYOGEN) relates background information.
As the priest dreams, Yoshitsune (NOCHI SHITE) appears in
his true form, singing :
A fallen flower blooms not again
A broken mirro' reflects no more.
The dead cannot return.
But anger, on a'loctiment to this world,
Binds him in agony in the nether world.
And pulls him bock to the battlefield.
Then he does a song and dance, and tells {sitllitg on stool)
how he rode his horse into the sea amongst the hostile craft to
retrieve his bow which was being carried away by the tide, in
danger of falling into the hands of the enemy.
He dances again, describing poetically the glistening of arms
on the field of battle.
NOTES
1. YASHI AA is one of the three Noh (with EBIRA, p. 19; and TAMURA
p. 69) of this type (Second Group) based on a victorious warrior
rather than a defeated Heike.
llciJu
2. Masks
SHITE: Jo
NOCHI SHITE:
3. Dances
Kaker'i
KIRI (describing Yoshitsune's battli
4. Variations of the INTERLUDE:
1) The usual form — Kagekiyo's combat with
story Kagekiyo relates for his daughter, in KAGEKIYO,
2) The story of Y^oshitsune retrieving his bow.
3) The story of the marvelous archery feat of Nasu no Y'oichi
(with the KYOGEN performing a fascinating miming of the
roles of Yoshitsune and Nasu no Y'oichi alternately) : Cora-
missioned to do so by Yoshitsune, he shot down the fan carried
as an emblem atop the mast of the enemy's ship, which was
bobbing on the waves a great distance offshore.
ith the Heike)
Mionoya
P-
(the
35).
— 76 —
YOROBOSHI
BACKGROUND
A father had cast out his son Shuntoku Maru because of a slander
instigated by the boy's step-mother. The father, when he reaUzes
the boy's innocence, does pennance by giving alms for one week at
the temple called Tennoji, in Osaka. In the meantime the boy has
become blind and wanders about as a begger.
NOH
On the last day of the almsgiving, Shuntoku Maru (SHITE) is
among the throng of the poor, singing his loneliness as he
comes.
Well may all call me Yoroboshi, for bsing blind I weave about like
a cart with one wheel off. (NOTE 1 )
As he receives the alms he becomes aware of the scent of
plum blossoms in full bloom, and quotes exquisite poetry of
their fragrance, as
The petals fall upon his sleeves
— Like spring snowfiakes floating down
— In semblence of the alms being given.
After receiving alms he tells the history of the temple, and
describes the famous places of the vicinity.
Then everyone goes to watch the sunset, as it is the day of
the Vernal Equinox. The blind boy performs a dance, telling
the story of his own life and suffering.
{miming his blind running and stumbling)
The father (WAKI), realizing it is his own son, embraces him
(though the boy in shame tries to hide himself), and joyfully
takes him home.
NOTES
1. YORO means 'stumbling' (or 'weaving') and BOSHI can mean
'boy' (or 'beggar').
2. Mask
SHITE : Yoroboshi
Dance
Iroe
HIGH POINTS:
1) The expression of his sensibility in smelling the plum
blossoms falling on his sleeves.
2) The sensitivity portrayed in hii running hither and thither,
ashamed before his father.
Other Noh of a similar theme:
KOYA MC^OGURUl. A son grieving for his dead father runs away to
become a priest, leaving a letter for the servant in whose charge he
has been left, who becomes mentally unbalanced in searching for him,
until he finds him with some priests at Mt. Koya.
TSUCHI3U,^UMA. When a father, unbalanced by grief at his wife's
death, abandons his son to become a priest, the overwhelming
responsibilities that fall upon the boy's tutor so unhinge him he
draws the boy about in a lowly vehicle (TSUCHIGURUMA 'earth
barrow') from place to place until they are by happy chance reunited
with the father at Zenko Temple.
UTAURA. A boy whose father is missing is taken to a fortune-teller
who turns out to be his father.
— 77 —
YUYA
BACKGROUND
Yuya is the concubine of Munemori, a scion of the governing
Hoike Clan (NOTE 1, a) at the Imperial Court in Kyoto, the Capital.
She longs to go to her mother who lies seriously ill at their home in
the eastern part of Japan.
NOH
First Munemori (.WAKI) comes on stage to explain that Yuya
has asked permission to return home hut he has refused
hecause he is pleased to have her company during this cherry
blossom time.
Then a maid (TSURE) from Yuya's home appears, bringing
a letter from Yuya's mother, which she delivers when Yuya
(SHITE) appears. Yuya again begs leave of Munemori to return
home, and reads him the letter, in which her mother says
she wishes to see her face once more before dying. But
Munemori still insists that she remain with him. A carriage
is then brought and Yuya is taken to Kiyomizu Temple
(Note 1, b) for the cherry-viewing party. There Yuya prays
to Kannon to save her mother, but is called from her prayers
to join Munemori and the others. She dutifully tries to appear
gay. dancing as ordered ; but when a sudden shower causes
many of the blossoms to fall, Yuya writes a poem and passes
it to Munemori. who reads:
I know not what to do ! ' Twould sadden me
To quit the Capital in all its vernal glory ;
Yet if the flower that I hold dear there in
The East should fall...?
This so touches Munemori that he immediately gives her
permission to go to her mother. Yuya sets off on her journey
at once before he can change his mind.
NOTES
1. References:
a. For a description of the Heike in power, see the song in
ATSUMORl, p. 14.
b. See TAMURA, BACKGROUND, p. 69.
2. Masks
SHITE: Zo
TSURE : tsure mask
3. TSUKURIMONO
Hanamiguruma : a framework poetically representing the
carriage which carries Yuya to the cherry-viewing party.
78 —
ASHI KARI
GENJO
A man who left his wife because of poverty is now eking out
a subsistence as a rushcutter. The wife meanwhile has been
well employed at the Capital and comes for him but he is at
first too wretched to show himself. However, when he has put
on the new garments she has brought for him, he dances, and
they then return happily together.
FUJI DAIKO
A musician named Fuji came up to the Capital when he
heard that Asama, another drummer, had been called to play
at an Imperial Court concert. Asama so resented this that he
killed Fuji, whose wife arrives with their daughter shortly after,
because of an upsetting dream she had. Grief -stricken, she
puts on her husband's robe and beats the drum which is to her
the cause of his death.
In UMEGAE, priests see the drum and robe (see above) in the house
at Sumiyoshi where they are given shelter by a woman who afterwards
comes as Fuji's wife and dances, wearing the robe.
GENJI KUYO
A priest is asked by a woman to perform a service for the
soul of Prince Genji of GENJI MONOGATARI because she is
unable to obtain bliss, for breaking the Buddhist commandment
against untruth by writing the romance. Though doubting her,
he complies; whereupon Lady Murasaki, the writer of the book,
appears again with a petition which he reads, at last under-
standing that Murasaki was manifestly an incarnation of the
Kannon Buddha who wished to show through the Tales of Genji
that human life is in reality as empty a dream as is fiction.
A renowned lute player about to enbark for China for further
training plays his instrument for the old couple in whose house
he is staying at Suma Beach, who so appreciate his music that
when rain patters on the roof they quickly spread grass mats to
deaden the sound. In turn, they play a lute named Genjo and
a harp for him, so impressing him that he gives up going to
China, learning then that they are the spirits of Emperor
Murakami and his consort Lady Nashitsubo, who played for him
for that very purpose. The Emperor later reappears, to call a
dragon god up from the sea and retrieve another famous lute
snatched away while enroue to Japan. (Cf. AMA, p. 8)
Other Noh on the same theme:
In KASUGA RYUJIN a man taking his leave at the Kasuga Shrine (in
Nara) for a trip to China is informed by a messenger of the god
there in the guise of an old man that all necessary Buddhism can now
be found in Japan ; following which a dragon god descends to make
him forswear the trip.
HAKU RAKUTEN contains the most chauvinistic insularism in this
pregnant myth: The Chinese poet Po Chu-i (HAKU RAKUTEN)
enroute to Japan meets two Japanese fishermen offshore who amaze
him by not only calling him by name but immediately capping a
Chinese poem the poet composes extemporaneously; after which a
Japanese god, Sumiyoshi Myojin, materializes from the waves and
dances, then orders him to go back home at once, calling up a
big wind with the help of other gods which blows his ship all the
way back to China.
— 79
HANJO
HYAKUMAN
This is the outstanding love story among all Noh.
Tlie "madame" of a road-side house discharges one of her
girls, Hanago. who refuses to serve other men since she fell
in love with one Yoshida from the Capital when he passed
through. The unfortunate girl, distraught with love and lone-
liness, wanders aimlessly from place to place. Yoshida comes
back on his return trijj in the autumn, intending to make
Hanago his wife, but finds her gone. So upon his arrival at
the Capital he goes at once to worship at the Shimokamo
Shrine. They are romantically reunited there through the two
fans which they had exchanged in troth of their love.
A Noh on a similar theme:
MINAZUKI BARAE. Two lovers are reunited at the Kamo Shrine.
HIBARIYAMA
Minister Toyonari, believing the stepmother's slander, orders
his men to take his daughter Chujo Hime to Mt. Hibari and
kill her. Instead of killing her they hide her there and her
nurse supports them both by selling flowers. One day Toyonari
comes to Mt. Hibari where he meets the nurse, who has
become crazed from worrjang over Chujo, and asks her to
take him to his daughter, for he has come to repent of what
he did. .After their reunion they happily return home.
Another Noh :
TAEMA. In a dream a priest meets manifestations of Amida and
Kannon, who wove a marvelous tapestry of Buddha images for Chujo
Hime (see above), who also appears and dances.
A man and a lost boy attend a religious service of chants
and dances. The boy's mother, Hyakuman, crazed with grief,
also comes, leading in the worship, and dancing, then praying
fervently that she may find her child. The boy tells the man
that she is his mother, so the man inquires where she is from
and the cause of her present condition. She replies that she
is from Nara where, after her husband's death, she became
separated from her only child, and now in her fruitless search
for him her wanderings have brought her here, and expresses her
grief in dance. She also dances the story of the founding of
the temple, praying that she may find her son.
The man is deeply moved and brings the boy to her. The
mother praises Buddha and they return home in great joy.
Similar Noh:
ASUKAGAWA. A child meets his lost mother planting rice.
KASHIWAZAKI. The servant of a man from Kashiwazaki who died
while on a trip to Kamakura with his son brings the dead man's
belongings and a letter from the boy saying he will become a priest,
both together so overwhelming the mother that she becomes deranged;
but later she is reunited with her son at Zenko Temple.
KANAWA
A wife who has been cast aside by her husband for another
woman, determined that they should suffer in this world for what
he has done to her, goes to the Kifune Shrine for seven days
seeking divine aid against them. On the last day she receives
an oracle : go forth to her purpose wearing on her head an iron
crown {kanawa) surmounted by three burning tapers, her face
painted red, dressed in red and holding to a consuming wrath
80
in her heart. She is very much surprised at this but while she
is considering going home to follow the instructions her features
take on a demonic visage and she rushes forth to take revenge.
The husband meanwhile consults the wizard Seimei about his
nightmares. Seimei quickly warns him that his life is in danger
on this very night because of a woman's hatred but Seimei
promises that he will try his best to save his life by deflecting
the imprecation.
While Seimei prays with all his might to protect the cursed
couple the ' living spirit " of the former wife's jealousy appears
and approaches the altar where dolls of the couple are lying.
She strikes them, expressing the agony and fury of a cast-off
woman, but when she tries to carry off the man she sees thirty
gods (protectors of the sutra) reprimanding her to desist. Her
supernatural power deserts her and she evaporates into thin
air, only her voice coming clearly — declaring that she will wait
for another chance.
Koeo
An Imperial Court official sends a man to find Lady Kogo,
the Emperor's favorite among the ladies-in-waiting, who has
.left the Capital for fear of incurring the displeasure of the
Heike (Taira) overlord Kiyomori whose daughter has become
Empress. He finds her by hearing the sound of her koto
(harp). And, after concluding his errand by delivering a letter
from the Emperor and receiving her reply, shows his sympathy
by drinking with her and dancing before he returns.
In GIO, the dancers Gio Gozen, long a favorite of Kiyomori, and her
protege Hotoke dance before him, but though he becomes enamored
of Hotoke she promises Gio she will not accept his attentions.
In HOTOKE NO HARA the spirit of Hotoke appears in a dream to a
priest at Hotoke no Hara and tells how she, like Gio, become a nun
and returned to her native village to die.
KOTEI
The emperor (KOTEI), in great anxiety over the illness of
his favorite concubine Princess Yang (see YOKIHI below), is
visited by the spirit of Shoki (see below), who committed
suicide when he failed the government examination, but was
posthumously appointed to court rank by the emperor's grace
and given a grand funeral. So in gratitude he has now come
to exorcise the penicious demon causing the affliction, for which
he orders a mirror to be set up at the sickbed. When he has
left, the demon appears in the mirror but simply vanishes when
it is attacked. Shoki returns and vanquishes it in an amazing
shadow-duel with its reflection.
In SHOKI the ghost of Shoki appears to a traveler.
YOKIHI. A medium who has been commissioned by the bereaved
emperor to locate his beloved Princess Yang (Yokihi) in the other
world locates her in the mythical Chinese Paradise HSrai Zan and
visits her there, receiving from her a memento and a poetic pass-word
for proof to the emperor that he met her.
Other similar Noh :
SHOKUN. An old couple, greatly agitated over the welfare of their
beautiful daughter Shokun who has been sent from among the
Chinese emperor's concubines as a peace offering to a barbarian king,
set up a magical mirror in which her image appears and that also
of the hairy barbarian, who is so hideous beside her fair beauty that
he draws back in shame.
KANYO KYU. A Chinese emperor deceived and captured by two men
of an enemy state tricks them by his concubine's music and kills them.
KOU. A ferryman reveals he is the spirit of the famous (General Knu,
then appears in his true form with his wife.
81
KUMASAKA
MAKieiNU
In the evening a priest from the Capital on a pilgrimage to
the East arrives at the village of Akasaka, where he is stopped
by a local priest requesting prayers for a certain person whose
tomb he points out but whose name he will not divulge. Then
he invites the traveler to lodge the night at his house, which
he does. And a startling place it is for a priest's house, with
all kinds of weapons hung about — a veritable armory — but not
a single religious implement. The host attempts by tricky logic
of twisted religious reasoning to justify a priest's possession
of such weapons. Then seeming to go to his bedroom to retire
he disappears and the whole house vanishes, leaving the
traveler to find himself spending the night under a pine tree.
In the INTERLUDE the priest asks a Man of the
Place about a bandit who once lived there, and
is told the exploits of Kumasaka and his defeat
by Ushiwaka (the boy Yoshitsune), concluding that
Kumasaka must have appeared in longing for prayer.
In the priest's dream Kumasaka reappears in his true form
and relates his band's night attack on a merchant caravan
staying at an inn, which ended in their being utterly routed by
Ushiwaka, who happened to be accompanying the merchants,
and in Kumasaka's death.
Other N'oh on Yoshistune as the boy Ushiwaka:
EBOSHI ORI 15 another N'oh of the defeat of Kumasaka by Ushiwaka,
presented as a direct narrative instead of the dream-form.
HASHI BENKEI. The well-known defeat of Benkei at the bridge (hashi)
by the boy Ushiwaka in the guise of a girl, whereupon Benkei became
his most loyal and proficient retainer.
FUE NO MAKI is a variant of HASHI BENKEI differing in the first part.
An Imperial envoy, on orders the Emperor gave in compliance
with a dream to present a thousand rolls of silk to the Kumano
Shrines, is sent to Kumano to gather the silk coming from the
provinces. But the man bringing the silk from the Capital
stops at the Otonashi Shine to worship, and offers up a poem.
When he arrives he is tied up and about to be punished for
being late. But the spirit of Otonashi no Tenjin, taking posses-
sion of a medium, tells the envoy to release him because the
poem he offered pleased the god. The possessed medium
praises poetry and explains the religious significance of the
Kumano Shrines, during which she dances more and more
ecstatically till the moment the divine possession leaves her.
Another Noh on the same theme:
ARIDOSHI. The poet Tsurayuki (see TORU, Note 2, p. 73) angers the
god by riding his horse into the shiine compound but appeases him
by composing a fitting poem on the spot.
82 —
MAKURA JIDO
MANJU
In ancient China, an envoy is sent by the emperor to Mt.
Rekken to find the source of miraculous water flowinf^ forth
from there. Deep in the mountains he finds Jido in a hut,
singing : " With the pillow of Kantan (see KANTAN, p. 36) you
dream of a hundred years of luxurious life, but every time I
look at my pillow I am reminded of my misconduct which
caused me to be here." (He had inadvertently stejJiied over
the pillow of the emperor, who was therefore obliged to exile
him to this remote mountain fastness.) Jido discovers that it
has been centuries since he was exiled, and understands then
that the emperor from his sympathy wrote on the pillow two
verses of Buddhist scriptures, which he faithfully copied onto
chrysanthemum leaves round about, and the dew from those
leaves became an elixir of life protecting him from wild beasts,
disease and death. Jido dances and serves the elixir to the
envoy, blessing the emperor and presenting him with his seven
hundred years longevity.
Other Noh of an elixir of life:
FUJI SAN. Another story about an elixir of life, sought on Mt. l'"uji.
KAPPO. A man pays a fisherman to release a strange fish he has
caught, then its spirit comes as a child and gives him a jewel that is
formed by its tears and will insure his longevity and health.
NEZAME. An elixir of life is received from dragon gods.
SEIOBO. A peach from heaven is given the emperor for longevity.
TOBOSAKU. Another Noh relating the same story of the peach.
YORO. A perpetual renewal in reward for filial piety; A young
woodcutter who works hard and faithfully to support his old parents
shows an Imperial envoy the waterfall from which he has taken water
that renewed his strength and benefited his parents, and some is taken
for the emperor; whereupon a mountain god appears and dances.
A similar theme:
HIMURO. A courtier is shown the ' ice cave ' by the local god and
given a piece of ice to take to the Emperor.
When a man named Manju recalls his son front the temple
where he has been sent to study, to check on his progress, he
flies into such a rage u])on discovering the hoy's utter ignorance
that he is only restrained from striking him dead on the spot
by the intervention of his servant Nakamitsu, whom he then
orders to kill the hoy. Unable either to ignore the order or lo
carry it out, Nakaniitsu instead kills his own son who willingly
offers himself as a sacrificial substitute. When the father
repents his rashness his son is brought back from the temple
where he has been hidden. While Nakamitsu takes pari in the
ensuing celebration his heart is with his dead son.
NOTE:
Only this Noh has this feudal concept of extreme self-sacrificing
loyalty so common in Kabuki ; but in others a child suffers a similarly
hard fate :
TAKE NO YUKI. A boy mistreated by his stepmother, being sent out
ill-clad into the wintery cold to clear out the snow (YUKI) from
a bamboo (TAKE) grove, dies; but the gods, moved by the pathetic
grief of his father, sister, and real mother, bring him back to life.
TANIKO. An acolyte of a YAMABUSHI priest secures the permission
of bis ill mother to accompany his master and others on a hazardous
ascetic exercise of mountaineering but on the journey becomes ill and,
in accordance with their immutable custom, must be thrown into the
valley far below; but lin no Gyoja (see ATAKA, Note 4, p. Kt)
so sympathizes with the priest in this unbearable disaster that he
summons a diety to restore the boy to life.
83 —
MATSUYAMA KA6AMI
MITSUYAMA
A younn )»irl sits alone in her room. It is the anniversary
of her mother's death.
When her father approaches she slyly slips a small object out
of his sight. He becomes greatly upset at this, jumping to the
conclusion that the daughter has made a wooden figure of her
stepmother, to put a curse upon her. But how grossly he
misjudges her ! To allay his fears she is obliged to show it :
a small hand mirror that had been her mother's, which she
passionately insists still shows her mother's image.
In actual fact it is the daughter's own reflection, for by her
devotion to her dead mother she has become her living image.
The mother's spirit then comes to console her. but is soon
sent for to return to Hades. Before being led away she is
told to look into the mirror to see her sins reflected there, but
lo! there in the mirror her saintly image is beheld — sanctified
by the daughter's pure heart of devotion. So she goes not back
to purgatorial torment but passes on to paradise anon.
NOTE: This lovely story has been sweetly retold in English by
Lafcadio Hearn, among others.
^9,^1
•^^
A priest arriving at Yamato with attendants has the famous
" Three Mountains " (Mi/sii Yanui) pointed out to him by a
Man of the Place, then meets a woman who tells their story :
A man living on Kaku Yama, one of the three mountains, conducted a
liaison with Kotsurogo and Sakurago, women who lived one on each
of the other two mountains. But he began to neglect Kotsurogo, who
drowned herself in o pool.
The woman, the spirit of Katsurago, then sinks into that
pool. The priest prays for her. but the spirit of Sakurago
comes to beg his help against her former rival's hatred,
whereupon Katsurago returns and they quarrel, but their ill-
feeling is at last assuaged.
MIWA
A woman who brings a daily offering of purification water
and a sprig of anise to a priest at Miwa asks him for a cloak
to protect her from the bitter autumn cold. He gives it to her,
and is told that her home is at the two cryptomeria trees not
far away, where the cloak is soon afterwards found hanging
among the branches. When the priest goes there, the god of
Miwa comes out as a woman and tells him an ancient legend :
A woman whose husband visited her only at night, wishing to find
out where he come from, tied a thread to the hem of his garment
and followed it, only to find that it ended at the foot of this tree.
The diety then performs the dance that was used to entice
the goddess Amaterasu from the cave where she had hidden
herself and relates that story too.
As dawn breaks the priest awakes with pleasant thoughts.
— 84 —
MORIHISA
MOTOMEZUKA
The Heike (Taira) warrior Morihisa is being taken captive
to Kamakura, but is granted permission to worship at Kiyomizu
Temple. With the day of execution drawing near he reads the
sutra continuously. Immediately after he has had a miraculous
vision of reassurance he is taken out to be executed. But
the executioner is so blinded by a dazzling light that shines
suddenly from the sutra scroll which Morihisa holds in his
hand that his sword falls to the ground and is shattered.
Yoritomo, learning what has happened, summons Morihisa and
when he tells his dream Yoritomo admits he also had the same
dream, which so impresses him that he decides to spare
Morihisa"s life. He serves him sake, and Morihisa performs
a dance in gratitude.
A Noh on a similar theme:
SHUNEI. Among the prisoners taken in a recent battle is the lad
Shunei, whose brother Tamenao then gives himself up to die with him
whereupon Shunei tries to save him by denying their relationship until
he threatens to kill himself; but all is happily resolved as a pardon
for Shunei arrives just as he is about to be executed, and everyone
celebrates.
A priest is shown the burial mound he is seeking and told
its story :
A girl named Unai Otome, unable to choose between two ardent
suitors, gave them trials of skill, but both their arrows struck the
some mandarin duck on the Ikuta River ; so seeing no way out she
drowned herself there and was buried in this mound. To the two
young men life then was vain so they stabbed each other to follow
her in death. So now their deaths, with that of the bird, she counts
among her many sins. Oh, miserable soul !
And lo ! the girl telling it vanishes into the mound.
As the priest reads the sutra for her soul and prays, she
appears and thanks him, then describes (and niinies) in vivid
horror her exquisite torments in hell, which ceasing she returns
in groping darkness to her tomb.
Other Noh on the same theme:
FUNABASHI. Some priests meet a man and woman collecting donations
for rebuilding a bridge — on which hangs the following tale : Two
lovers living on either side of a river met nightly on the bridge until
their parents, disapproving, took some planks out of the bridge to
prevent their meeting, and both, unknowing, fell into the river and
were drowned ; these two being of course the spirits of the lovers,
who later reappear and attain salvation through the prayers of the
priests.
NISHIKIGI. A priest is shown a mound by a man and woman, later
revealed as spirits of a broken-hearted suitor buried there, and the
object of his affection.
UKIFUNE. A woman tells a traveling priest the story of Ukifune, who
drowned herself because she could not choose between two suitors;
when he goes on to another village she comes to him as Ukifune, with
an arresting story of how she was saved from the river and spent
the rest of her days here.
— 85
NOMORl
RAIDEN
A traveling priest tinds a pond in Kasuga Field and asks an
old man there about it. He informs him that it is called the
Mirror of the Keeper of the Moors, but this is also the name
of a mirror carried by a demon who guards the moors by day
in the form of a man. Saying he has the mirror carried by
the demon, he disappears into a mound. The priest prays
there and the demon appears with the mirror. He shines it
in all directions and stamps about vigorously, finally disappearing
again into Hades.
The avenging spirit of the Heian Court Minister and poet
Michizane who died with malice in his heart against his enemies
appears to a holy priest to whom he is indebted to warn him
that he i^lans to take revenge by becoming a thunderbolt and
striking the Imperial Palace, so not to go there even if sum-
moned. The priest however will not heed the warning but
goes when called, and succeeds in subduing the angry spirit.
NOTE:
In a variant NOCHI {Second Part) of this Noh, Michizane comes to
the Imperial Palace only to express his gratitude for the honors
posthumously bestowed upon him, and to bless the Imperial reign.
OMINAMESHI
A traveling priest sees some yellow flowers {oiiiimintcslii)
blooming and would pick some but an old man stops him. He
talks about the flowers and takes the priest to the burial mounds
of a man and his wife, whom he explains have some connection
with that flower; then disappears. The spirits of the husband
and wife then appear and relate their story :
Unable to bear her husband's lack of consideration, the wife threw
herself into the river. Her husband burled her in a mound and from
it grew this kind of flower. He then drowned himself and was buried
in a mound beside his wife's.
He then performs a vigorous dance expressing the continuous
pain of torment in Hell ; and they disappear.
A Noh on a similar theme:
UNEME. A lady-in-waiting at the Imperial Court appears to a priest
who prays beside the pond in Nara where she drowned herself after
she lost the Emperor's affection.
RODAIKO
A man in detention for killing another man in an argument
escapes, so his wife is confined in his stead. But she becomes
seemingly crazed, with loneliness and yearning for her husband,
and strikes the drum hanging on the wall, dancing madly. This
so arouses the sympathy of her captor that he releases her,
with a pardon for her husband. She then tells where he is
hiding, and sets off at once to join him.
86
SAIGYO SAKURA
When an old cherry tree beside the retreat of Saigyo, a
famous hermit-poet, comes into full bloom he would enjoy the
beauty undisturbed but a noisy group of people come on a
flower-viewing party. Saigyo composes a poem in which he
blames the cherry tree for the intrusion ; but while he is
napping there, the spirit of the old tree comes forth to
remonstrate that it is not to be blamed ; then dances, expressing
the joy of spring blossoms. As the dream fades Saigyo
awakes.
Another Noh about Saigyo:
UGETSU. At Sumiyoshi, Saigy') lodges with an old couple whom he
helps compose a poem about a disagreement arising from their acute
poetic sensibility ; then the god of the Sumiyoshi Shrine, patron of
poetry, takes possession of an old man to sing of poetry, and dance.
SANEMORI
A Man of the Place explains that a certain priest preaches at
that spot every day apparently to himself but an old man,
visible only to the priest, comes daily to listen. The old man
now comes as usual, and. after revealing he is the spirit of the
old warrior Sanemori, vanishes at the nearby pond. The
priest prays for him there all night and the old warrior comes
back in his true form to describe his fatal battle with Yoshinaka
(see TOMOE, p. 4), miming the episode of the washing of his
severed head in that pond, by which his true identity was
then discovered, for he had dyed his old gray hair lest he be
put to shame for his hoary age.
SEMIMARU
Semimaru, fourth son of the Emperor, blind from birth, is
taken at his father's order to Mt. Osaka. There his head is
shaved and his clothes are changed to those of a priest ; he is
supplied with a straw coat, a hat, a stick to walk with, and a
lute. Though he accepts that it is his father the Emperor's
wisdom to make him suffer thus now so he may be happier in
the next life, he weeps when he is left alone and realizes what
a great change has come upon him.
A Man of the Place sympathizes with him, making a hut for
him to stay in and also offering to wait on him.
In the Capital his insane older sister Sakagami wanders away
from the Palace and comes to Mt. Osaka.
In his hut Semimaru plays the lute and recites a poem
showing his resignation. The unusually noble tone of the lute
draws Sakagami to the hut, and she finds her younger brother.
After the affectionate and sorrowful encounter she leaves,
Semimaru begging her to visit often, wandering heavily onward.
SENJU
Shigehira, son of Kiyomori, was captured at the battle of
Ichinotani and has been sent to Kamakura, seat of Yoritomo's
government, and is being held at Munemochi's house.
Senju is sent by Yoritomo to keep him company with musical
instruments. Shigehira asks her about his request to be allowed
to become a priest but is told that Yoritomo has refused.
Munemochi brings sake to cheer him up, as it is a dank,
dreary evening. Then Senju sings and dances to entertain him
and Shigehira joins in, playing on a lute till late ; then together
they sleep.
When morning comes Shigehira is sent back to Kyoto by an
Imperial Order, and they say a last sad farewell.
— 87 —
SHICHIKIOCHI
TAMAKAZURA
After suffering a crushing defeat by the Taira (Heike) clan,
Yoritomo is about to escape by boat when he finds that he and
his companions number eight. This number having proved
very unlucky for both his father and his grandfather in similar
circumstances, he orders that one of the men be put ashore.
The chief officer leaves his own son behind to face certain
death; but he is 'captured" by a Taira commander secretly in
league with Yoritomo, and returned safely. They all rejoice,
drinking ceremonially, and celebrating with happy dances.
SHOZON
Yoritomo, head of the Bakufu at Kamakura. has become so
suspicious of his younger brother Yoshitsune. that he sends his
retainer Shozon to Kyoto to kill him. Benkel, hearing of this,
goes to the inn where Shozon is staying and insists on taking
him immediately before Yoshitsune. There he is closely ques-
tioned about his intentions and to escape from the difficulty,
gives his written bond of loyalty to Yoshitsune. At this they
feast together and Shizuka Gozen entertains them with a dance
before Shozon returns to his inn. Benkei, however, is far from
satisfied and sends a serving-woman to see what Shozon and
his men are doing. When she reports that they are making
preparations for an attack. Yoshitsune and his men themselves
make ready. In the fight Shozon and his men are defeated and
Shozon himself captured and bound.
A Noh on the same theme :
NISHIKIDO. Bloody complications of suicides, attempted fratricide ; and
conflicts of feudal loyalties in treachery against Yoshitsune instigated
by Yoritomo.
A traveling priest arrives at Hatsuse to worship the Kaniion
of Hase. A woman comes up the river, singing of her
loneliness and distressed condition. The priest, wondering at
a woman all alone in a little boat rowing against the mountain
current, opens a conversation with her. Enjoying the autumn
scenery they go to w^orship at the Kannon Temple. Then she
shows him two cryptomeria trees. Reciting an old poem about
those evergreen the priest asks her about the circumstances of
the poem. She tells the story of Tamakazura :
Her mother Yugao (p. 31) died when she was a child, so she lived in
Tsukushi, in Kyushu, where she spent unhoppy days till she finally
returned to the Capital. But still she was so miserable that she went
to pray at the famous Hase Kannon, and there she met her mother's
former maid, Ukon.
Buddha's mercy again led her today to see the priest.
Begging, "Please help me attain spiritual peace," she reveals
her name and disappears.
As the priest prays, Tamakazura reappears, dancing as an
expression of her yearning for prayer.
She confesses that her attachment to this mortal life is
clouding her soul from entering peaceful rest :
I should not be angry at others, if I consider all my troubles, painful
though they were, to be the natural recompence for my sinful nature.
I am so ashamed that I was disturbed and much overwrought about
trivial things.
Freed from worldlv attachment she attains Nirvanna.
TEIKA
A priest and attendants visiting the Capital are enjoying the
autumn scenery. When they take sheher from a sudden shower
in a nearby cottage, a beautiful woman appears and asks them
if they realize this is the cottage built by the Heian poet Teika
who loved this scenery, especially in autumn, and used to write
poems here. At her invitation, they go to visit a tomb which
is covered by a tightly clinging vine. She explains it is the
tomb of Princess Shokushi and the vine around it is called the
Teika Vine. Finally she tells of Teika's secret liaison with
Princess Shokushi; and how after her death Teika's spirit
turned into the vine which has confined her in constant suffer-
ing. Revealing that she is the spirit of the Princess, she
requests prayers, then disappears into the tomb.
As the priest recites the Lotus Sutra, the spirit of the Princess
reappears out of her tomb to perform a joyful dance in gratitude
for having obtained release through his prayers.
TOGAN KOJI
A lay priest named Togan entertains a traveler with preaching
and song and dance, at Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto.
Other Noh including an entertainment :
JINEN KOJI. The lay priest Jinen receives a robe as a gift from a
girl, but in an accompanying letter she explains she has sold herself
to buy it for him to hold services for her deceased parents, so he
rushes after the men who have bought her and secures her release
by entertaining them with song and dance.
KAGETSU. A man who became a priest after his son disappeared meets
a boy entertainer near Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto and recognizes him
as his son, learning then that he had been led away by a TENGU.
TOKUSA is a reverse story : A boy who had been enticed from his
home recognizes his father when he puts on the son's garments and
sings songs as the boy used to, and dances.
SANSHO. Three old sages drink and laugh together.
TOSEN
Two Chinese children arrive on a ship from China to ransom
their father who has been held in forced labor by a Japanese
landowner who captured his ship thirteen years before, but the
father is forbidden to take with him the two children born to
him in Japan ; so he is torn between the two pulling him to
leave and the two holding him to stay, till the landowner is
so moved by his plight that he allows him to take them with
him. and all five happily set sail.
MINASE. A man who left his family to become a priest is reproached
by the spirit of his wife, who has subsequently died, for hesitating
to reveal himself to his children, and at last reunited with them.
TSURUKAME
An Imperial Chinese Court official announces that a New
Year celebration is to be held. The celebration procedes with
song and dance, the principal characters representing the crane
and the tortoise, auspicious symbols of longevity. And the
emperor himself then dances.
UKAI
The priest Nichiren determines to pass the night in a haunted
temple. The ghost of an old cormorant fisherman who once
sheltered him appears, explaining that for violating the strict
prohibition against taking life in the nearby river by fishing
there nightly with his cormorants he was punished by being
drowned in the river. When the priest ijromises prayers for
his soul he demonstrates how the fishing is done; then disap-
pears. When Nichiren writes words from the Lotus Sutra on
some stones and throws them into the river, Emma, the King
of Hell, announces the fisherman's suffering is remitted and he
will be sent to Paradise because of his kindness to the priest.
— 89
Other Noh of the priest Nichiren
GENZAI SHICHiMEN. Nichiren, by the power of the Lotus Sutra,
transforms a dragoness, who comes first as a worshiper then as a
serpent, into a goddess protector of the mountain.
MINOBU. A woman's spirit attains salvation through Nichiren's
reading of the Lotus Sutra.
UKON
Some priests of Kashima Shrine (in the present-day Kanto
district) have come to the Capital to see the cherry blossoms
(at a place in Kyoto named Ukon no Eaba). When a lady
comes there in a carriage, accompanied by her maid, one of
the priests recites a poem by Narihira. the famous classical
poet, which says that, though it is not a person whom he really
knows, yet it is not someone he has never seen before — why
should he be so captivated by her ? He will spend the day
dreamily contemplating her 1 She, in turn, answers by reciting
a poem which had been written in answer to Narihira's poem :
Whether we know each other or not is beside the point ; the
all-important question is the depth of your feeling.
They continue thus, reciting poems and discussing the scenery.
Finally she reveals that she is the goddess of cherry blossoms,
who is enshrined as a minor diety at that shrine, and promises
to return and dance that night, which she does.
A similar Noh :
YOSHINO TENNIN. A goddess of Yoshino comes to a cherry-viewing
party, first as beautiful woman, then in her true form as a diety to
dance in praise of the cherry blossoms.
YAMAMBA
According to ancionl folklore, a weird old mountain hag
called Yainamba, who is the embodiment of the mountain spirit,
goes her eternal rounds of all the iimuntains.
Hyakuma Yamamba, a dancer who has won fame as the
composer of a dance on the mountain hag's wanderings, is on
her way from the Capital to the Zenko Temple, when she is
halted in a mountain pass by a sudden darkness, caused by the
Yamamba, who comes as a village maid and intreats her to do
the Yamamba Dance, then disappears.
When Hyakuma performs the Yamamba Dance in the nocturnal
solitude of the mountain depths the Yamamba comes forth and
performs dances symbolizing her wanderings about the moun-
tains in all seasons — flower bedecked, moon lighted, and silvered
with snow.
YORIMASA
A priest who is sight-seeing at Uji has the places of interest
round about pointed out to him by an old man, who then takes
him to Byodo In to show him the patch of turf kept cut m the
shape of a fan, on the spot where the old Genji (Minamoto)
warrior Yorimasa chivalrously spread out his fan to sit upon
when he killed himself there after suffering a crushing military
defeat. As he disappears he reveals he is the spirit of the
warrior, who then comes back to relate his fateful battle and
final act.
TOMONAGA. Tomonaga, also a defeated Genji (Minamoto) warrior,
appears to his former tutor who is lodging the night at the house of
a woman of the place where he killed himself.
90
SHRINE NOH
Noh beginning as shrine troupes it is not surprising that
there are a great many Shrine Noh :
KAMO. A pilgrim priest sees the three dieties of Kamo Shrine : the
god Wakeikazuchi, his mother, and the arrow which she found
floating in the river just before she miraculously conceived him.
KINSATSU. An Imperial envoy receives a golden tablet from heaven
promising protection to the land, then the god brings a bow and arrow
for subduing demons and keeping the peace.
KUSENOTO. A pilgrim courtier taking part in a religious ceremony
at Kusenoto meets a BOSATSU and a dragon god.
MATSUNO-O. A courtier at Matsuno-o Shrine meets the god, first in
the guise of an old man.
MEKARI. The priest of Hayatomo Shrine performs an annual ceremony
of gathering seaweed, with dragon gods.
OYASHIRO. A courtier hears the story of Izumo Shrine from two of
its priests, then two gods dance.
In SHIRAHIGE and SHIRONUSHI the Diety of the Place performs dances.
TAIZANBUKUN. Dieties extol the beauty of cherry blossoms.
TATSUTA. A priest going to Tatsuta Shrine is stopped by a woman as
he is about to cross the river and taken there by another way, to
worship at a sacred maple ; the woman, reappearing as the goddess
Tatsuta, discourses poetically on the beauty of the maple leaves.
UCHITO MODE. An Imperial envoy to Ise Shrine is entertained with
prayers and preaching, then by various types of dances.
U NO MATSURl. An Imperial envoy attending the cormorant festival
at Keta Shrine meets the goddess, with a child representing a sacrificed
cormorant returned to life, and a god.
YUMI YAWATA. The god of the Otokoyama Hachiman Shrine appears
carrying a bow and arrow, reappearing to dance for a blessed reign.
NOTE: These shrines are so-called Shinto, but by the time of
Noh the syncretism of native gods (MYOjIN, KAMI, etc.) with
Buddhist incarnations (BOSATSU) makes clear distinction impossible.
DOMYOJI expresses this synthesis most clearly : an old man in a
Buddhist temple explains Buddha and the gods (Shinto) as manifesta-
tions of the same things, then reappears as Shiratayu, messenger of
the gods.
RINZO has a Buddhist theme, with a remarkable sutra stand (RINZO),
a Buddhist divinity, and a great teacher (Fu Daishi) with his two
children.
There are many Noh of mythology and legends:
AWAJI. Japan made by the drops of water from the spear that had
been plunged into the sea by the god Izanagi.
In SAKA HOKO a courtier meets an old man going to Tatsuta Shrine
who informs him the spear (hoko) the god used (see AWAJI above)
is enshrined there, then appears carrying it after a goddess has danced.
EMA. An Imperial envoy enroute to the Ise Shrine stops to watch a
local shrine's festival in which votive plaques of white or black horses
are hung to foretell the fortune of the coming year ; the sun goddess
Amaterasu and other dieties later depicting her withdrawal into a cave.
MIMOSUSO. A delightful myth about the origin of the name of the
River Mimosuso, from the washing of the soiled train of the goddess
Yamato Hime— told by an old man who reappears as the god Okidama.
OROCHI. The Noh version of the folklore about the god Susano-o
who saved the Princess Kushiinada from an eight-headed dragon
(orof/a— 'great serpent') by first getting it drunk on sake and then
killing it, afterwards taking a sacred sword out of its tail.
In KUSA^4AGI two gods appear, first as flower peddlers, to a pilgrim to
Atsuta Shrine and tell how the sword taken from the tail of the dragon
(orof/iz— see above) was used to subdue the barbarians.
GENDAYU. At Atsuta Shrine two dieties in the guise of an old couple
tell of the sword, other dieties afterward dancing.
KUREHA. The spirits of Kurehatori and Ayahatori, the girls who
introduced weaving to Japan from Korea, appear to a courtier.
SAOYAMA. A nobleman at Kasuga Shrine finds a white cloud cover-
ing Sao Yama, it being the wonderful gown of mist, neither cut nor
sewn, of Sao Yama Hime, goddess of spring.
DEMONS, DEVILS AND EVIL SPIRITS IN NOH
There are demons of various types in the NOCHI (latter part) of
a large number of Noh. In the cases representing a true demonic
creature, the HANNYA mask is used; in other cases similar masks
are used. Among other things, these demons represent :
In AOI NO UE— a 'living phantom' jealousy (p. 10) Also YUGAO, p. 31
In AYA NO TSUZUMI— the malice of a dead man (p. 16)
In DOJOJI- a spurned woman's fury in snake form (p. 18)
In FUNA BENKEI— an apparition of a defeated warrior (p. 24)
In KUROZUKA and MOAAIJI GARl— a map-eating ogress (p. 48 and p. 54)
SESSHOSEKI is a 'death rock' killing any living thing that comes neir.
but the evil spirit within it is subdued by a priest's prayers.
— 91 —
Other Demon Noh :
DAIROKUTEN. Dovil king Dairokuton is subdued by god Susano-o
Uee OROCHI. p. 91V
HIUN. A devil, appearing first as an old woodcutter, is subdued by
priests warned by the local god.
NOMORI. A benign Demon of the Place performs a vigorous dance with
a mirror (p. 86).
SHARI. A demon disguised as a villager makes off with a temple's
shari (ashes of Buddha) but the holy relic is recovered by a divine
being.
DRAGONS
The Noh dragons, or dragon gods (RYfJIN) and goddesses bear no
resemblance to the antagonist of St. George, coming rather from old
Chinese Rain Gods, or the magical Kingdom Under the Sea (RYUGC)
of myths like Urashima Taro (see TAMANOI below); but the eight-
headed orochi ("big serpent') of the Izumo legend does (see p. 91).
TAMANOI. The god Hodemi, in search of his older brother's fish-hook
which he lost while fishing, spends three years with two gorgeous
princesses in the Dragon King's Palace, receiving the fish-hook when
he returns, as well as a magnificent jewel, etc., from each princess.
IKKAKU SENNIN. A horned (ikkaku) hermit (sennin) has imprisoned
the rain dragons but is beguiled by a beautiful lady to drink, which
is taboo, thus losing his magical power that the dragons escape to
bring rain on the parched land.
IWaFUNE. A benign dragon god brings in safely a treasure-laden ship.
RYOKO is a strange story of priests from Japan in China witnessing a
fight between a heavenly dragon (ryo) and a tiger {ko).
A--^^
ANIMALS, BIRDS, AND POETIC SPIRITS
The fabled beasts and birds portrayed in Noh are mostly reminiscent
of such creatures as the unicorn and phoenix bird of Western myths.
NUE -fearful bird with head of monkey, body of a badger, legs of a
tiger, tail of a snake. In the Noh, killed by Yorimasa (p. 90) for
threatening the life of the Emperor.
SHISHI- mythical lion SHAKKYO (p. 58)
SHOJO — mythical orangutan (p. 60)
TENGU— a flying goblin (p. 47)
TSUCHIGUMO 'earth-spider' (p. 74)
Real animals are also the subject of Noh.
HATSUYUKI. The spirit of a dead pet chicken appears as a woman and
dances.
SAGI— ' heron '
In the Noh, the bird is caught and performs dances for the Emperor.
TSURUKAME — crane and tortoise, symbol of longevity (p. 89).
U— 'cormorant' UKAl (p. 89) and U NO MATSURI (p. 91)
UTO— an indeterminate bird immortalized for its devotion to its young.
In the Noh the damned spirit of a hunter who had killed uto and
other birds returns from Hell to send a memento to his wife and child.
In MATSUMUSHl a regular customer of a wine dealer in the market-
place turns out to be the spirit of a man who, long ago, wandered off
after the chirping of crickets (rnatsiunushi) and was finally found dead
by his bosom friend who came in search of him.
Embodied spirits play an important role in Noh.
KOCHO is the portrayal of the spirit of the butterfly.
YUKI — spirit of snow, as a young woman
Poetic spirits of insentient flowers and trees.
BASHO— 'the plantain tree'
The spirit of the tree, as a woman, rejoices that even plants and trees
may attain salvation (Cf. KAKITSUBATA, p. 33).
FUJI — 'wisteria'
The spirit of the flowers appears as a woman and dances.
MUTSURA— spirit of a maple
NANIWA— praise of the plum blossom
OIMATSU— divine spirit of an ancient pine
SAIGYO SAKURA— spirit of a cherry tree, as an old man (p. 87)
UME — spirit of plum blossoms
YUGYO YANAGI — spirit of willow tree, as an old man
UKON— goddess of cherry trees (p. 90)
— 92
APPENDIX I.
APPENDIX II.
SOURCES
The KOJIKI and the NIHON SHOKI {Chronicles of Japan)
suppHed many myths and legends for Kami Noh (of Shinto
gods).
The HEIKE MONOGATARI ( Tales of the Heike) not only
gave the plots for many Warrior Noh, but also served as the
model for the literary style and language of this type of Noh.
Other sources of stories of warriors include : GEMPEI SEISUIKI
(The Genji and Heike Clans) ; GIKEIKI (Yoshitsune) ; and
SOGA MONOGATARI (Soga Brothers).
The MANYOSHU and the KOKINSHU, the great repositories
of classical Japanese poetry, have greatly influenced the theme
and content of Noh.
GENJI MONOGATARI {Tale of Genji). the classic novel
of Japanese literature, gave Noh not only many characters, but
also plots, descriptive passages, and an inexhaustable supply of
quotations.
The ISE MONOGATARI (by Narihira) and the YAMATO
MONOGATARI supply plots and poems for many Noh.
Legends from India, incidents and poetry from Chinese lore,
as v^ell as Japanese, are derived from a great many sources.
Such references and allusions in Noh are legion.
PERSONS
Benkei
Soga Brothers pp.
44
45
ATAKA
p-
12
Tomomori
FUNA BENKEI
p-
24
FUNA BENKEI
P-
24
SETTAl
p-
25
IKARI KAZUKI
P-
55
SHOZON
p-
88
Yoshinaka
En no Gyoja
TOMOE
P-
4
ATAKA, Note 4
p-
13
KANEHIRA
P-
6
ARASHIYAMA
p-
12
KISO
P-
6
KAZURAKI
p-
40
SANEMORI
P-
87
Genji (Hero of GENJI
Yoritomo
MONOGATARI)
DAIBUTSU KUYO
P-
35
SUMA GENJI
p-
31
MORIHISA
P-
85
SUMIYOSHI MODE
p-
31
SHICHIKIOCHI
P-
88
Kiyomori
(Referred to in Noh
SHUNKAN
p-
61
about Yoshitsune)
KOGO
p-
81
Yoshitsune
GIO
p-
81
ATAKA
p.
12
SENJU
p-
87
FUNA BENKEI
P-
24
Komachi (Ono no Koraachi
)
SETTAl
P-
25
KAYOl KOMACHI
p-
38
TADANOBU
P-
25
SOTOBA KOMACHI
p-
39
YASHIMA
P-
76
OMU KOMACHI
p-
39
As the boy Ushiwaka
SEKIDERA KOMACHI
p-
39
KURAMA TENGU
P-
46
SOSHI ARAI
p-
63
SEKIHARA YOICHI
P-
47
Narihira
KUMASAKA
P-
82
IZUTSU
p-
32
EBOSHI ORI
P-
82
KAKITSUBATA
p-
33
FUE NO MAKI
P-
82
OSHIO
p-
33
Yorimasa
UNRIN IN
p-
33
YORIMASA
P-
90
Saigyo
NUE
P-
92
EGUCHI
p-
20
Yugao
MATSUYAMA TENGU
p-
47
HASHITOMI
P-
30
SAIGYO SAKURA
p-
87
YUGAO
P-
31
UGETSU
p-
87
TAMAKAZURA
P-
88
93 —
APPENDIX III
94
INDEX OF NOH
ADACHIGAHARA - other name for KUROZUKA
AISOMEGAWA (under KINUTA )
AKOGI
AMA
AOI NO UE
ARASHIYAMA
ARIDOSHI (under MAKIGINU)
ASHIKARI
ASUKAGAWA (under HYAKUMAN)
ATAKA
ATSUMORI
AWAJI
AYA NO TSUZUMi
BASHO
CHIKUBUSHIMA
CHOBUKU SOGA (under KOSODE SOGA)
CHO RYO (under KURAMA TENGU)
DAIBUTSU KUYO (under KAGEKIYO)
DAIE (under KURAMA TENGU)
DAIROKUTEN
DANPU (under KOSODE SOGA)
DOJOJI
DOMYOJI
EBIRA
EBOSHI ORI (under KUMASAKA)
EGUCHI
EMA
ENOSHIMA (under CHIKUBUSHIMA)
FUE NO MAKl (under KUMASAKA)
FUJI
FUJI DAIKO
FUJI SAN (under MAKURA JIDO)
FUJITO
FUNABASHI (under MOTOMEZUKA)
FUNA BENKEI
FUTARI GIO- other name for GIO
FUTARI SHIZUKA (under FUNA BENKEI)
GEKKYUDEN - other name for TSURUKAME
GEMBUKU SOGA (under KOSODE SOGA)
GENDAYU
page
42
7
8
10
12
82
76
80
12
14
91
16
92
17
45
47
35
47
92
45
18
91
19
82
20
91
17
82
92
79
83
22
85
24
25
45
91
GENJI KUYO
GENJO
GENZAI SHICHIMEN (under UKAI)
GIO (under KOGO)
HACHI NO Kl
HAGOROMO
HAJITOMI - usual pronuciation of HASHITOMl
HAKU RAKUTEN (under GENJO)
HANAGATAMI
HANJO
HASHI BENKEI (under KUMASAKA)
HASHITOMl
HATSUYUKI
HIBARIYAMA
HIGAKI (under KAYOI KOMACHI )
HIMURO (under MAKURA JIDO)
HIUN
HOKA ZO (under KOSODE SOGA)
HOJOGAWA (under KUZU)
HOTOKE NO HARA (under KOGO)
HYAKUMAN
IKARI KAZUKI (under OHARA GOKO)
IKKAKU SENNIN
IKUTA - other name for IKUTA ATSUMORI
IKUTA ATSUMORI (under ATSUMORI)
IWAFUNE
IZUTSU
JINEN KOJI (under TOGAN KOJI)
KAGEKIYO
KAGETSU (under TOGAN KOJI)
KAKITSUBATA (under IZUTSU)
KAMO
KAMO MONOGURUI (under KINUTA)
KANAWA
KANEHIRA (under TOMOE)
KANTAN
KANYO KYU (under KOTEI)
KAPPO (under MAKURA JIDO)
KASHIWAZAKI (under HYAKUMAN)
KASUGA RYUJIN (under GENJO)
KAYOI KOMACHI
KAZURAKI
KENJO - other pronunciation of GENJO
KIKAIGASHIMA- other name for SHUNKAN
KIKU JIDO -other name for MAKURA JIDO
79
79
90
81
26
28
79
29
80
82
30
91
80
39
83
92
45
49
81
80
55
92
15
92
32
89
34
89
33
91
42
80
6
36
81
83
80
79
38
40
— 95 —
KINSATSU
KINUTA
KISO (undor TOMOE)
KIYOTSUNE
KOCHO
KOGO
KOI NO OMONI (under AYA NO TSUZUMI)
KOKAJI
KOSODE SOGA
KOTEl
KOU (under KOTEl)
KOYA MONOGURUI (under YCROBOSHh
KUMASA<A
KURAMA TENGU
KUREHA
KUROZUKA
KURUMA ZO (under KURAMA TENGU)
KUSANAGI
KUSENOTO
KUZU
MAKIGINU
MAKURA JIDO
MANJU
MATSUKAZE
MATSUMUSHI
MATSUNO-O
MATSUYAMA KAGAMI
MATSUYAMA TENGU (under KURAMA TENGU)
MEKARI
MICHIMORI (under KIYOTSUNE)
MIDARE under SHOJO)
MIIDERA
MIMOSUSO
MINASE (under TOSEN)
MINAZUKI BARAE (under HANJO)
MINOBU (under UKAI)
MITSUYAMA
MIWA
MOCHIZUKl (under KOSODE SOGA)
MOMUI GARI
MORIHISA
MOTOMEZUKA
MUROGIMI (under EGUCHI)
MUTSURA
NAKAMITSU- other name for MANJU
91
41
6
42
92
81
16
44
44
81
81
77
82
46
91
48
47
91
91
49
82
83
83
50
92
91
84
47
91
43
60
52
91
89
80
90
84
84
45
54
85
85
21
92
NANIWA
NARA MODE -other name for DAIBUTSU KUYO
NEZAME (under MAKURA JIDO)
NISHIKIDO (uiukr SHOZON )
NISHIKIGI (under MOTOMEZUKA)
NOMORI
NONOMIYA (under AOI NO UE)
NUE
OBASUTE (under KAYOI KOMACHI )
OCHIBA (under HASHITOMI)
OEYAMA (under TSUCHIGUMO)
OHARA GOKO
OIMATSU
OKINA
OMINAMESHI
OMU KOMACHI (under KAYOI KOMACHI)
OROCHI
OSHIO (under IZUTSU)
OYASHIRO
RAIDEN
RASHOMON (under TSUCHIGUMO)
RINZO
RODAIKO
RYOKO
SAGl
SAIGYO SAKURA
SAKA HOKO
SAKURAGAWA
SANEMORI
SANSHO (under TOGAN KOJI)
SAOYAMA
SEIGANJI (under TOBOKU)
SEIOBO (under MAKURA JIDO)
SEKIDERA KOMACHI (under KAYOI KOMACHI)
SEKIHARA YOICHI (under KURAMA TENGU)
SEMIMARU
SENJU
SESSHOSEKI
SETTAI (under FUNA BENKEI)
SHAKKYO
SHARI
SHICHIKIOCHl
SHIGA (under SOSHI ARAI)
SHIRAHIGE
SHIRONUSHI
92
83
88
85
86
11
92
39
31
74
55
92
1
86
39
91
33
91
86
74
91
86
92
92
87
91
56
87
89
91
71
83
39
47
87
87
91
25
58
92
88
63
91
91
96
SHOJO
SHOKI (under KOTEI)
SHOKUN (under KOTEI)
SHOZON
SHUNEl (under MORIHISA)
SHUNKAN
SHUNZEI TADANORI (under TADANORI)
SOSHI ARAI
SOSHI ARAI KOMACHl - other name for SOSHI ARAI
SOTOBA KOMACHl (under KAYOI KOMACHl)
SUMA GENJI (under HASHITOMI)
SUMIDAGAWA
SUMIYOSHI MODE (under HASHITOMI)
TADANOBU (under FUNA BENKEI)
TADANORI
TAEMA (under HIBARIYAMA)
TAIHEI SHOJO (under SHOJO)
TAIZANBUKUN
TAKASAGO
TAKE NO YUKI (under MANjQ)
TAMAKAZURA
TAMANOI
TAMURA
TANIKO (under MANJU)
TATSUTA
TEIKA
TENKO
TOBOKU
TOBOSAKU (under MAKURA JIDO)
TOEI (under HACHI NO Kl)
TOGAN KOJI
TOKUSA (under TOGAN KOJI)
TOMOAKIRA (under KIYOTSUNE)
TOMOE
TOMONAGA (under YORIMASA)
TORI Ol (under KINUTA)
TORI Ol BUNE - usual name for TORI Ol
TORU
TOSEN
TSUCHIGUMO
TSUCHIGURUMA (under YOROBOSHI)
TSUMADO- other name for RAIDEN
TSUNEMASA
TSURUKAME
UCHITO MODE
60
81
81
88
85
61
67
63
39
31
64
31
25
66
80
60
91
68
83
88
92
69
83
91
89
70
71
83
27
89
89
43
4
90
42
72
89
74
77
75
89
91
UGETSU (under SAIGYO SAKURA)
UKAI
UKIFUNE (under MOTOMEZUKA)
UKON
UME
UMEGAE (under FUJI DAIKO)
UNEME (under OMINAMESHI)
U NO MATSURI
UNRIN IN (under IZUTSU)
UROKO GATA (under CHIKUBUSHIMA)
UTAURA (under YOROBOSHI)
UTO
YAMAMBA
YASHIMA
YOKIHI (under KOTEI)
YORIMASA
YORO (under MAKURA JIDO)
YOROBOSHI
YOSHINO SHIZUKA (under FUNA BENKEI)
YOSHINO TENNIN (under UKON)
YOUCHI SOGA (under KOSODE SOGA )
YUGAO (under HASHITOMI)
YUGYO YANAGI
YUKI
YUMI YAWATA
YUYA
ZEGAI (under KURAMA TENGU)
ZENJI SOGA (under KOSODE SOGA)
87
89
85
90
92
79
86
91
33
17
77
92
90
76
81
90
83
77
25
90
45
31
92
92
91
78
47
45
— 97 —
For information of the current schedules of Noh performances, call
TOKYO
Suid6bashi NSgakudo
27, 2 Chome. Motomachi, Bunkyo-ku Tel. 811 -4843
(Near Suidobashi Station)
Kanze Kaikan
10, 2 Chome, Shin Ogawamachi, Shinjukuku Tel. 260 9165
(At Omagari, near lidabashi Station)
Umewaka Nogakugakuin Butai
2, Uenohararaachi. Nakano-ku Tel. 369—3050
(Near Higashi Nakano Station)
Yarai Nogakudo
60, Yaraicho, Shinjukuku Tel. 341-7311
(Near lidabashi Station)
Kita Nogakudo
245, 4 Chome, Osaki, Shinagawaku Tel. 491—9598
(Near Meguro Station)
NAGOYA
Atsutajingu Nogakuden
1, Shinmiyasakacho, Atsuta-ku Tel. 67 — 2912
(Near Atsuta Station)
Oe Nogakudo
Higashiiru, Oshikoji Minamibaba, Nakakyo-ku Tel. 22 -7625
OSAKA
Osaka Nogaku Kaikan
12, Michimotocho, Kita-ku Tel. 371 — 3330
(Near Umeda Station)
Otsuki Nogakudo
2, Ue Honmachi, Higashi-ku Tel. 762-1467
(At Uchonmachi)
Y^aniamoto Nogakudo
17, 1 Chome, Tokuimachi, Higashi-ku Tel. 941—5866
(At Uchihonmachi)
NARA
Nara Konparu Nogakudo
14, Horen Minamicho. Tel. 2-7929
KANAZAWA
Kanazawa Nogakudo
80, Hirosakadori Tel. 2-2018
KYOTO
Kyoto Kanze Kaikan
44, Enshojimachi, Okazaki, Sakyo-ku Tel. 77 — 6114
(Near Kyoto Station)
Kongo Nogakudo
Shijoagaru, Muromachi, Nakakyo-ku Tel. 22—3049
(Near Kyoto Station)
FUKUOKA
Sumiyoshi Nogakuden
Sumiyoshijinja Tel. 3—2670
(At Sumiyoshigumae)
WAN YA
The No It Spop
Noh Masks
Fans
Dolls
Books
Pictures
'V'V'^A
"
Si
y^y
GINZA SHOP
8-4, Ciinza, Chuo-ku. Tokyo
Tel. (571) 05 14
JmmFJWW
— :ii3 Ti
TO TOKYO -
i';i
WANX/i store
L
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h.,
f^
NS^i
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11
IE •"
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